Scottish meat companies warn labour shortage is long-term problem
The Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) has said that the current workforce shortages are predicted to be “a prolonged issue.”
SAMW president Alan McNaughton, speaking after a meeting of the Association’s executive council, said: “The notion that the degree of staffing issues affecting the whole food industry at present will magically disappear once we accomplish Christmas, is fanciful.”
McNaughton said that many of the Association’s members reported labour problems during the meeting with one major company owner, commenting that this problem could continue throughout 2022 and possibly beyond.
“Trapped in a staffing merry-go-round”
“The day-to-day challenge at present for many businesses is to recruit staff from an insufficient labour pool. All this means is that businesses are trapped in a staffing merry-go-round with workers moving from one company to another and back again.”
McNaughton added that the difficulty of recruiting and retaining skilled workers is “immense.” He continued: “It is easy for government ministers to point to the high number of people looking for work but the bottom line is that those who are available on the local jobs market either do not have the particular skills we require, or are simply not interested in working or willing to work in a meat production environment.”
“It will take time to deliver”
SAMW members, according to McNaughton, accept that the lack of sufficient and skilled staff is not simply down to Brexit as it has been a long-term issue for the industry. McNaughton said: “We can obviously do more to solve our own staffing problems by showcasing the wide variety of positions available within meat processing, while working with the likes of Skills Development Scotland to provide a more cohesive and comprehensive pathway to employment within the red meat sector. But putting this in place will undoubtedly take time to deliver the volume of new recruits we so desperately require.”
The Association is now urging the government to allow the industry to recruit staff from outside Britain to work within the UK for at least 12 months to keep factories running.
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