Staff at the Covid-hit 2 Sisters plant in Coupar Angus will get extra training on how to prevent a further outbreak.
Workers, who return to the site on Monday morning for the first time in two weeks, will be told how to stop the spread of infection outside of the factory walls and help safeguard others in the community.
The improved safety strategy will focus on a message of “shared responsibility” and aims to quash theories that anyone who tests negative is “provided with some level of immunity”.
The Incident Management Team (IMT) fighting the Coupar Angus cluster has given bosses the go-ahead to reopen the George Street abattoir.
About 900 staff employed by the 2 Sisters Food Group work at the premises, alongside around 250 contract workers.
No updated figures were released over the weekend, but by Friday there were 188 positive Covid-19 cases connected to the outbreak.
A spokesman for the firm said: “Working closely with the incident management team, NHS Tayside and the local authority, we have been working hard during the temporary closure to supplement our existing Covid-19 control measures to keep our colleagues safe.
“Whilst it is important to ensure our measures on site are robust and working, we believe it is also critically important for our people to understand their obligations away from the factory in the local community, which our initial analysis suggests has played a significant role in the transmission of the virus.”
He added: “In addition to a series of enhanced measures, colleagues will also receive training and best practice guides on issues ranging from transport arrangements and conduct in the community to keeping Covid-safe in a shared household.
“We expect each and every colleague to take personal responsibility for their own behaviours outside of work.”
The spokesman added: “As one of the largest employers in the area, we are more than aware of our responsibility in the community to ensure we act with care to ensure everyone’s health, safety and wellbeing.
“We also realise there will be colleagues who have tested positive and may believe this provides them with some level of immunity.
“The reality is that we don’t know this to be true, so our teams will be making sure everyone knows we all have a shared responsibility to protect each of us and our wider community from any further outbreak.”
Most of the workforce will return for training on Monday, with production expected to resume the day after.
During the closure, thousands of live chickens were transported by lorry to another 2 Sisters’ plant in Wales.
Unite Trade Union regional organiser Susan Robertson said: “It is a commercial food processing company and that is the situation. Profit very much matters.
“Many people in this area are dependent on jobs with 2 Sisters.”
