Slaughter House CCTV Restricts Employment

The use of CCTV may lead to difficulties employing staff in the future, AIMS has claimed.

19:17 15 November 2017

The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) has warned that the use of CCTV in all abattoirs may lead to difficulties employing staff in the future.

 

Norman Bagley, policy director for AIMS, said: “We support the use of CCTV in slaughterhouses. The devil will be in the detail, however."

 

 “The presence of CCTV in live animal areas and slaughter areas will potentially make it more difficult to retain staff working in these areas. Furthermore, we anticipate it may be more difficult to recruit new staff to work in these areas. This is of concern due to the nature and threat to the workforce in general, due to problems that may occur because of exiting the EU.”

 

“We believe a fair and practical solution would be to provide FSA [Food Standards Agency] veterinarians unrestricted access to contemporaneous live feed, which would completely address the issue of stunning pens which are difficult to view.

 

“To permit a prosecuting authority, FSA, to review months of recordings of staff who have not consented to being filmed and initiate retrospective prosecutions is unprecedented. Similar controls over staff in hospitals and care homes would never be contemplated, so there is no justification for selective and discriminatory treatment of abattoir workers."