small business | August 03, 2020
Restriction exemptions needed for small regional meat processors
Member for Lowan Emma Kealy is calling for small regional meat processing plants to be exempt from new state government downsizing measures to ensure they can remain open and maintain adequate supply for communities.
The state government today announced that new business restrictions would take effect from midnight on Wednesday as part of measures to manage the second wave of COVID-19 in the state. These measures include scaling back the Victorian meat industry workforce by a third.
However Ms Kealy said cutting the number of staff at small regional abattoirs by this margin would force some into closure, which would subsequently compromise food supply chains.
“One abattoir in our electorate has only three staff members. If that business has to cut their workforce by a third they are left with two staff, which would make their operation unviable,” she said.
“People in our area understand the need for measures to ensure their safety, but there needs to be common-sense exemptions for businesses with small numbers of staff that could otherwise not operate if their business was forced to downsize.
“I am calling on the government to implement an exemptions process to ensure that these such businesses can continue to operate to ensure meat supply to our communities can continue.”
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