WORKERS at the Thomas Foods International Murray Bridge plant will be on two weeks leave from today, as the company works through its redeployment strategy, following a major fire last week.
Chief executive officer Darren Thomas said the company had been working with the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union to work collaboratively to ensure the best outcomes for affected staff.
The company has already worked to end its arrangements for international workers.
“We have spoken with labour hire agencies and ceased the temporary employment arrangements for the 417 visa workers at Murray Bridge,” Mr Thomas said.
Mr Thomas said the company was “committed” to Murray Bridge and would be “taking a long-term and sustainable approach to the recovery and rebuild”.
“As such, we are not in a position to provide any further detail on our employment strategy,” he said.
“In the past few days I have spoken with many employees and their families at Murray Bridge and I understand the uncertainty as event such as this causes.
“I have reassured them that our family company remains fully committed to finding the best possible outcome for our employees.
“We stand by our staff at this difficult time, providing what assistance and support we can.”
Mr Thomas said TFI had already received numerous offers of assistance from organisations, local business and government, including some offering temporary positions to staff.
“The overwhelming community response and support has been incredible,” he said.
Mr Thomas said he still not had full access to the site to determine the full extent of the damage and it “may not be known for some time”.
“There is no doubt the fire caused significant damage to our plant, however we’re continuing to manage customer orders through our other group processing operations,” he said.
“The site will require significant repair and upgrade but we are committed to rebuilding and creating an even better meat processing facility in the future.”
