Workers urged by police to contact authorities if employers breach Covid restrictions

Workers concerned about their employer's approach to Covid-19 restrictions have been urged to contact the local authorities.

The message came in the weekly press conference held by Public Health Northamptonshire on Friday.

It came after the Chronicle & Echo was approached by a factory worker in Northampton who shared pictures of unorganised staff jostling for the exit at the end of the day, with no social distancing or mask wearing.

The worker said that agency and permanent staff were leaving through the same exit. Under Covid measures they should be leaving through separate entrances.

The member of staff said: "There is no little social distancing at the work stations and people do not use their masks. The management don't seem to care.

"If you arrive at work with a high temperature you are sent home and so are the people near to you at your work station.

"But there is a a general culture of amongst staff of hiding it and not informing management if they have symptoms. People don't want to isolate or stop working, they need to earn money."

This point of continuing to work instead of isolating is one that has been raised by others with the Chron, not just factory workers.

We raised put this point to members of the panel at the press conference.

Supt Elliot Foskett, of Northamptonshire Police, said: "If you have a concern about this then you can contact the police. You can contact us either anonymously, online or you can call us. All of that information comes together and we paint a picture through our joint enforcement team and we work together to tackle it.

"If there is an employer who has got these kind of practices going on, and they are probably few and far between, report it, we will deal with it with our powers, with Environmental Health powers, with the Health and Safety Executive and we will tackle it," he added.