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DEAR SIR: In the letter published last week from a concerned housewife, mother and frontline worker, she asked surely that it is now appropriate to issue guidelines on contractor workers coming into homes and the risk of infection? The letter writer is entirely correct in that it is not appropriate for farm contractors and their employees to enter the homes of farmer clients for meals or for any other reason, during these unprecedented times.
At FCI, we issued clear guidelines which included not entering clients’ homes for food, to almost 1,000 contractors on our mailing list in March of this year, as well as on our social media channels and our text messaging service.
The Irish Farmers Journal also published this message at the time. FCI has provided its members with thousands of cab warning stickers. We have urged all contractors to regularly inform their driver teams about the disinfection of machine cabs and exercising responsible hygiene standards in machine work areas.
We have also issued reminders informing farm contractors that they should not enter clients’ homes for food and that they should make the maximum effort to take and to give the instructions over the phone.
We have also given advice on disinfecting machines and ensuring that there is no cab sharing or entry of people other than the dedicated driver, into each machine cab.
The COVID-19 restrictions presented significant new challenges for farm contractors and for many farm families, especially in the area of providing food for teams of machine operators travelling from farm to farm during the silage harvest.
Our FCI members have truly appreciated the significant efforts that so many farm families and some independent caterers have made in order to provide our teams with much-appreciated, quality and nutritious food.
This was during what was fortunately a period of good harvesting weather and was provided in a way that followed Health Service Executive (HSE) guidelines.
Because of COVID-19, having an over-the-phone meeting before work starts can help contractors and their farmers clients to establish clear roles, responsibilities and actions to manage health and safety risks.
At FCI, we are aware of the daily challenges of balancing work demands with the health and safety of operator teams and farmer clients.
Our aim is to get the best outcome for farm contractors and Irish farming families who rely on modern high-technology machinery in the control of skilled contractor operators to provide valuable and cost-effective machinery services on Irish farms every year.
In 2020, there is the additional responsibility on all farm contractors to ensure the safety of those who work for them and their farming clients.
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