One of the meat factories that saw a large COVID-19 outbreak last week has delayed its reopening plans.

Eighty-six workers tested positive for the virus at O’Brien Fine Foods in Timahoe, County Kildare.

The outbreak, coupled with similar clusters in three other food processing plants in the midlands led to the two-week lockdown in Kildare, Laois and Offaly.

The O’Brien's plant suspended operations last Friday and was originally due to return on August 18th; however, that date has now been pushed back to August 24th.

The sign for the town of Timahoe, Kildare, where O’Brien Fine Foods has confirmed that 86 of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19, 07-08-2020. Image: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews

In a statement, the company said it was “adopting a slow, controlled and phased approach to reopening.”

It said the reopening will only get underway with HSE approval and testing will continue every two weeks moving forward.

It comes after SIPTU presented representative body Meat industry Ireland (MII) with a new worker’s charter aimed at improving conditions in the sector.

On the Hard Shoulder, sector organiser Greg Ennis said the charter was “paramount” when it comes to addressing the clusters and warned that many workers in the industry are on low wages and are living in crowded accommodation with no sick pay.

This afternoon, O’Brien’s said it would update its working shifts to ensure the least amount of contact between employees and would “further bolster” its COVID health and safety policy.

The new policy will include new arrangements for transporting people to and from work and ongoing safety training for all staff in a range of languages.

The company said all staff are continuing to be paid in full during the shutdown.