Workers at the Ferrero plant in Arlon are asking a lot of questions about their near-term future, as the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (AFSC) withdrew the production permit at the site on Friday due to 100 cases of salmonellosis identified in Europe in the recent weeks.
Staff have received few responses so far, according to a Saturday meeting between site management and worker representatives. As for the week starting on Monday 11 April 2022, the situation resulting from the Afsca decision does not fundamentally change things as a week off was planned for the factory workers for a long time. But what about the following?
†From the Tuesday after Easter (i.e. April 19, Editor’s Note), maintenance and cleaning work is planned. This will take up some of the staff, but it is not yet known how many employees. That is why we have asked the management for a work plan”, says Sylviane Arnould, a regular at CSC Food and Services.
After that, everything will depend on the date of reopening of the Arlon factory. The Afsca explained that it will only authorize the reopening of the site after it has been able to ascertain that the site complies with all food safety rules and requirements.
†The company assures us that it is doing everything it can to restart quickly, but workers will have to be patient. There will likely be temporary unemployment for some of the company’s staff, which will mean a financial loss to the employees involved.”continues Sylviane Arnould.
A new meeting in sight
On Saturday morning, the unions also asked management for better communication with the company’s staff. They also called for another information meeting to be held next week. The date of this meeting is not yet known.
According to the Ferrero website, the Arlon plant, which opened in 1989, employs 725 people, but this number “can go up to 1100 during seasonal peaks”† The eight production lines at the Arlon facility produce nearly 18 million Kinder Schoko-Bons, 2 million Kinder Surprises and 4 million Raffaellos every day. Almost all (96%) of the production is exported to forty-five countries in the world.
