CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 19TH February 2021

Mass COVID-19 testing of employees in the food industry

Food Standards Scotland have informed us today that they will accept interest from businesses in the food industry with 20-50 employees to participate in the employee COVID-19 testing program.
It had been previously stated that applications could only be from businesses with over 50 employees.
The cost for this is being met by the Scottish Government for the next 9 months. A lateral flow test will be carried out with any positive tests from that being sent for the PCR test to confirm.
Businesses can apply to participate by e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected] who will take your interest forward.

Apprentice Employer Incentive Grant

Due to unprecedented demand, we have had to put any new applications on hold.
We have now filled our contract numbers for Skills Development Scotland and have applied for extra places. However, there is no guarantee we will get those extra places
If you have already started the process of application, this will proceed, and we will apply on your behalf.
Any new notes of interest will be placed on a pending list, with inductions of apprentices taking place after April 5th, 2021. The current grant scheme is set to close for all applications on the 25th of March 2021. If the Scottish Government extend the incentive grant after this date we will apply for the grant for all new apprentice inductions after the 5th April, when our new contract begins.

Meat Managers Hygiene and HACCP Course

It is increasingly important to make sure that our businesses have an operational and auditable food safety management system in place.
We have traditionally held our Meat Managers Hygiene and HACCP courses in one location on one day. These have been held throughout the country and have proven very popular and useful in the development of individuals within the business who are required to take responsibility for the implementation of the HACCP system.
The courses have been delivered by Verner Wheelock.
Paul Bache has presented these courses for many years on behalf of Scottish Craft Butchers and the certificates issued are recognised by the local authority environmental health officers.
Due to the current restrictions we cannot hold face to face courses.
Therefore, we have decided to offer the course online during video meetings in April.
The format will be 3 x afternoons (3 hours each session) on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with a maximum of 7 places. Each candidate will have to attend all 3 sessions!
The course content is attached!
If you would like to find out more or register yourself or someone in your business on the course, please contact Claire on 01738 637785 or e-mail [email protected]

SFMTA Employer Practice Liability Insurance

For the past few years we have had an insurance policy in place along with our HR employment law advisors, Lindsays, which protects our members businesses from the outcome of employment tribunals. This policy would be accessed as long as businesses followed the legal advice given in each case from Lindsays.
The policy was held with AXA insurance. We have been informed that the cost of renewing this policy has tripled in value and that AXA now insist on a £5000 excess on each case.

This is an unacceptable increase, and we were given 3 days to respond whether we were going to renew or not. We have decided not to renew and have instructed Lindsays to investigate whether a similar policy can be found with another company.
Until we have this information, please be advised that as of Saturday 13th February 2021 we will not have any insurance policy in place in respect to this.

Vaccination Update

The deputy first minister reports that as of 8.30am on Friday, 1,386,152 people had received the first dose of the vaccination – an increase of 31,186 from Thursday.

He says all over-70s, all care home residents and people who are seriously clinically vulnerable have been offered the vaccine and take up rates are “exceptionally high” in those groups.

He adds that if you are in these categories but haven't yet received the vaccine, you can still get a first dose.

Scotland is “on course” to offer all over-65s the vaccine by the end of March, Mr Swinney says.

The Scottish Craft Butchers office in Perth is now closed following government guidelines.
We will be available to our members to answer any queries via email or by mobile phone and will be available out of office hours for any members wanting to contact us.
Our contact details are below
Gordon King: [email protected] 07917524313
Bruce McCall: [email protected] 07834490922