The meat processing giant Tönnies attributes the Corona outbreak in its main factory to low temperatures and employee journeys home.
Now a video reveals massive hygiene deficiencies. It stems from the beginning of the pandemic, the company emphasizes – and has to row back shortly afterwards.
Due to a shocking video and misinformation, the heavily criticized butchery company Tönnies continues to come under pressure.
A recent video from the company canteen of the Tönnies meat factory in Rheda-Wiedenbrück uncovered numerous hygiene violations by employees during the corona pandemic.
The company confirmed the authenticity of the video, but initially pointed out that it had been recorded “at the very beginning of the pandemic” and showed an “old state of hygiene measures”.
According to research by the SWR, however, the video dates from April 8 – at this point, the new hygiene regulations of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia had been in force for over a week.
A Tönnies press officer revised the first statement on Thursday and admitted that the video was made in early April, only to emphasize a day later that the video circulating on the internet had been known to the company since March 28, 2020.
The spokesman made it clear that there had been a breakdown in crisis communication. Confirmation that the video was from April was wrong. The video must have been shot in March because it has been known to Tönnies since the end of the month.
Hundreds of meat workers can be seen on the video, who sit close together without maintaining the minimum distance. There are clear guidelines for company canteens in NRW. These should only be operated “if the necessary precautions for hygiene, controlling access, avoiding queues and ensuring a minimum distance of 1.5 meters are guaranteed.”
According to Tönnies, the workers at the time were only in the canteen with colleagues with whom they had worked in a department. This behavior, the so-called clustering, was coordinated with occupational safety.