A whistleblower who worked for the Food Standards Agency reveals that meat inspectors are routinely bullied, and sometimes assaulted, while doing their jobs in slaughterhouses.
Drawing on conversations with colleagues across the industry, the whistleblower said that staff were often bullied and harassed in their efforts to uphold good practice.
'The general public need to know that inspectors and vets are dealing with physical and verbal abuse, damage to property', he told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, adding that it goes on 'every day' in parts of the industry and is 'accepted'. 'If someone pushed you up against the wall and battered you verbally in your office [they would] be up for a disciplinary or maybe be fired on the spot. In this industry you’re expected to brush it off and come to work the next day.'
The whistleblower worked for several periods from 1998 until the summer of 2016 at a small slaughterhouse in Taunton, Somerset. As well as personal abuse, he claims he witnessed a catalogue of hygiene failings at the plant. Read the full story here.
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Published Friday 13 October 2017
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
