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- The large Coop bakery in Schafisheim (AG) is hit harder than average by Corona.
- So far, 45 employees have tested positive for coronavirus.
- Employees criticize that the requirement for a mask has prevailed recently despite the smaller space. And the employees would not be sent home despite contact with the sick.
- Coop contradicts the criticism, but has since expanded protection measures.
The accusations are steep: several employees of the large Coop bakery in Aargau Schafisheim anonymously describe complaints regarding Corona’s protection measures to “Kassensturz”. The job has been “downright dangerous” for a long time, says one person. They felt very little protected from Corona. Because dozens of employees have already hired Corona. “A team leader said that 40 people were sick in a single shift. And there are three shifts, you can extrapolate. “
Expert talk: Corona situation at work
Protective walls and masks missing
Around 700 people produce hundreds of thousands of loaves of bread, cakes and puddings every day, sometimes in very confined spaces: “On certain conveyor belts, there are up to ten people, perhaps half a meter away. And until two weeks ago no one wore a mask there. Even then, there were several confirmed coronary cases. “Only in mid-October did the company introduce a general mask requirement.
Plexiglass panels were installed on the belts in March, but only to protect them from the employees in front of them. For a long time there were no partitions for the neighbors to the left and right of the belt. They were only installed during the last weekend.
Not quarantined despite contact with infected people
What concerns employees in particular: Employees would arrive at work with symptoms of illness. Apparently out of fear of losing their job if they were absent. Furthermore, superiors would misinform, the source said.
“We only found out that a colleague tested positive because we called him.” Superiors had not reported corona cases or sent employees home as a precaution. “Even though they knew we were in contact with the person.” Several employees “Kassensturz” speaks to confirm the allegations independently of each other.
SRF Investigativ-Box
Coop confirms 45 corona cases in operation
Coop has now confirmed that the large bakery is hit harder than average by Corona. So far, 45 employees have tested positive for the virus, spokeswoman Rebecca Veiga said.
Regarding accusations from employees that they were not sufficiently protected for a long time, Veiga says: Before the introduction of the general mask requirement, the company was instructed to wear a mask if the minimum distance was not maintained. Veiga admits that this instruction was apparently not implemented everywhere. So now they have retrained. And other measurements were also taken, such as additional partitions on the conveyor belts or temperature measurements for employees. Additionally, employees who had problematic contact with infected people were always sent to isolation. However, this contradicts the statements of several employees with whom “Kassensturz” spoke.
