37 cases of coronavirus now confirmed at Walkers as employee speaks out against company
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Thirty-seven cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed at Walkers in Aberlour.
It was announced on Tuesday that factory SH2 has closed as a result of Covid-19 outbreak, with the other factories remaining open.
This was due to 26 people having the virus, a further 20 isolating and 40 being off on holiday – with Walkers having around 175 people working at the SH2 factory.
MORE: Walkers factory closed after Covid-19 outbreak.
An anonymous Walkers employee has been in touch with the Strathy's sister title The Northern Scot and alleged that the company has been threatening staff in an attempt to keep things "under wraps".
The employee said there are no temperature checks, no social distancing and no masks worn at the factory.
The employee added: "All they are interested in is selling biscuits and making money. They are not interested in the staff and don't take our health and safety to heart. It's scary."
However, Walkers spokesman Jack Irvine refuted these claims. He said: “We now have 37 cases but to put that into perspective that is 37 out of 1100 across our two sites and six factories.
“We completely refute the anonymous allegation and there is nothing that could be further from the truth. We feel that we have done everything and more to ensure that the wellbeing of our staff has been our priority.
"We have communicated all our actions and changes to our staff as a matter of priority and the way we are operating at present is testament to that.
"We have had continual communications with the authorities and have always acted on best practise advise and within governmental guideline.
“We find the comment about staff being threatened highly offensive and the mere fact that we previously closed for three weeks to improve our procedures further, without any remuneration penalty to any of our staff, again is testament to that.”
