This is the pig workers' union. Washing work clothes is quite a major task if you examine it carefully: a lot of washing every day.
It certainly is not the case in Britain. Mostly foreign workers have no union representation anyway.
But according to Defra, Britain's agricultural ministry, no MRSA has ever been found in any pigs in Great Britain: the calves carry pig MRSA, the horses carry pig MRSA, the milk carries pig MRSA, but the pigs, pig veterinarians and pig workers don't!
As always, read the report in full here, realising that it is a mechanical translation from the Danish.
January 27, 2015 at. 10:15
Employers should wash MRSA-contaminated clothing
If your clothing may be contaminated with swine bacterium MRSA, have your employer obliged to wash it. It states WEA
ByMorten Halskov
FACTSLarge increase in infected
More and more Danes are infected with porcine MRSA CC398. There has been a total of 1,552 cases from 2007 to April 2014, figures from SSI,2007: 14 cases
2010: 111 cases
2013: 643 cases
There has throughout the years from 2007-2013 were more infected men (771) than women (500).
Source: SSI
Is there a risk that you get in contact with the infectious swinebacterium MRSA when you are at work?
So it is your employer's responsibility to the laundry. According to a new answer from WEA to 3F.
More 3F members working in pig houses have been hit by the bacterium MRSA. The highly publicized swine bacteria can cause infections, boils and pimples. In rare cases, it can also cause severe blood poisoning. The bacterium is resistant to the types of medicine we use the most, such as penicillin. WEA writing to 3F, the clothes you normally use in agriculture, is not considered personal protective equipment. This is because the clothes themselves do not provide any protection employee. But the clothes can be contaminated with MRSA, it is subject to the rules on use of personal protective equipment, establishes supervision.
- It will say that it is the employer who is responsible for washing work clothes, writes Head of WEA Bitten Højmark Døjholt in the letter to 3F.
- We are very pleased that the WEA has made it clear that it is the employer's responsibility to wash work clothes. The rules apply both to those who work in the stables, and for those who are otherwise in contact with pigs, such as drivers transporting pigs to slaughterhouses, says Jesper Lund-Larsen, environmental and occupational health policy consultant at 3F.
He calls for the employees who may come into contact with MRSA, change clothes every time they leave the stable areas - and the work clothes delivered to the washing of the employer.
