We hope this Easter communication from the DEA finds you, your colleagues, and family members all keeping well in these challenging and uncertain times.  Never before have all of us faced into the Easter break with such a dark cloud hanging over us.

Fortunately for DEA members, the Public Health Measures put in place to prevent spreading COVID-19 don’t apply to the manufacture of food and beverage products and animal feeds.  As essential service providers, our members have avoided the short time working and lay-offs that have impacted huge numbers of the working population across the country.  Despite Government mitigation measures, many workers are experiencing significantly reduced incomes and facing a very uncertain future.  How long the pandemic continues and how quickly the economy recovers afterwards will be critical to many of the latter workers.

Staff who must be present in the workplace have adopted to new health & safety protocols, social distancing, stringent reporting and other interventions.  All measures designed to stymie the spread of the Coronavirus and protect employee health & welfare.

For many other DEA members, working life has changed utterly.  With immediate effect, all workers were required to work remotely from home if at all possible.  While a small minority would have had previous experience of home working, for the vast majority it is a novel experience!  Surprisingly, Wi-Fi signal quality across the country hasn’t been as bad as might have been expected!  What appears to have been a seamless adjustment in most employments will no doubt present new challenges as time goes on.  The lack of face-to-face human interaction with other work colleagues may present as an issue over time.  To some extent, social isolation can be mitigated by regular phone, skype, and other digital contact.

No doubt, remote working has come centre stage for now – it’s a global experiment.  It will be interesting to watch workplace developments after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed.  Improvements in carbon footprint, traffic congestion, long commutes, etc can be an upside.  It’s too early to say that the way we work has changed forever!

We would be keen to hear back from members as to how working remotely has impacted them.  Do let us know how you are finding this New Working Reality and keep in touch.

Easter Greetings to you, your colleagues, and family.

Do keep safe,

CEO/General Secretary