Meat Industry Ireland (MII) is calling for an “immediate halt” to a work-to-rule action imposed by Temporary Veterinary Inspectors (TVIs) at factories nationwide.

Over the last 48 hours, meat processing plants have had to turn away farmers with fit cattle due to TVIs refusing to work beyond their contracted hours following a long-running dispute between Veterinary Ireland and Government departments over their employment status.

A number of factories have been affected by the action, which escalated this week due to a breakdown in talks between the parties when a collective agreement was finally due to be signed off.

According to Veterinary Ireland the industrial action is necessary as veterinary officials have, for a number of years, been required to carry out duties outside contracted hours in order to fulfill schedules.

The situation has caused production lines to operate at half capacity today and yesterday (December 17 and December 18).

Further factories are expected to be affected in the coming days.

In a statement, Cormac Healy MII senior director called for an end to the dispute.

“The meat processing industry has been impacted by a work-to-rule by TVIs for much of the year, due to a dispute between Veterinary Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Over the past week, there has been an intensification of the work-to-rule. While processors are not involved in this dispute, they are nonetheless caught in the middle.

“The recent action is undermining normal processing activity and creating uncertainty for businesses and farmers.

“Some plants are facing significant disruption to operations which is impacting on processing throughout and animal intake and risking supplies to customers at a critical time of year.

“We need both parties at the table immediately and the work-to-rule halted,” he said.

AgriLand understands that Irish Country Meats and Rosderra Meats have been significantly impacted by the action.

It is understood that Rosderra, the largest pork processing company in the country, has been forced to reduce its daily intake from 6,000 head to 4,600 head.

‘Goodwill vets’

Conor Geraghty of Veterinary Ireland stated to AgriLand that all TVIs are going to work as normal.

He stressed that vets have not withdrawn their services but are just fulfilling their contracted hours.

The problem is in 2011 the department closed the panels and now don’t have enough vets.

“They depend on the goodwill of vets in some factories to work double and triple shifts during busy periods.

“When the department backed out of the deal last Tuesday (December 11), a significant number of TVIs decided that goodwill was not requited and decided to work their contract only hours,” he said.