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Some 130 workers have been evacuated from a remote Far North Queensland worksite over food safety concerns, after images emerged of maggot-infested meals being served to staff.
Workers at the Genex Pumped Storage Hydro Project at Kidston were allegedly served mouldy and fly-riddled food on Thursday morning, a day after initial food safety concerns at the site were publicised.
The isolated site is more than a three-hour drive from the nearest shop, and workers deemed the situation to be so dire, they were considering paying for a helicopter to do a food drop.
The Genex Pumped Storage Hydro Project worksite at Kidston in Queensland.
Instead, 130 workers were flown off the site on Friday. The CFMEU has now called for the Queensland government to introduce mandatory living standards and regulate conditions at remote worksites.
“The gross negligence and systemic failures of Genex and ISS aren’t just a risk to the health of hardworking Australians, they’re a risk to the viability of major infrastructure projects like the Kidston hydro project,” CFMEU Queensland and NT executive officer Jared Abbott said.
“Major projects can’t be delivered when workers are being evacuated due to serious food contamination and abysmal hygiene conditions, such as those at the Kidston hydro project run by ISS and Genex.
Workers at the remote Genex Pumped Storage Hydro Project at Kidston were allegedly served mouldy and fly-riddled food on Thursday morning.
“If the Queensland government is serious about productivity, it must immediately introduce minimum living standards for remote workers and stop companies like Genex and ISS from cutting corners on worker health and safety, which put workers at risk and have now shut down work on the state’s critical infrastructure.”
Electrical Trades Union state organiser Robert Hill earlier this week said there was an intolerable ongoing risk to workers’ health.
“Our members don’t know whether the next meal they’re served will make them sick. What they’re experiencing is a smorgasbord of contamination – maggots, flies, mould – and it’s happening in a remote camp where workers have no alternative food options,” he said.
Maggot-infested meals allegedly served at the Genex Pumped Storage Hydro Project at Kidston on January 10.
A stop-work action was carried out at the project late last year over unacceptable conditions.
Unsafe food standards and unclean accommodation were among the concerns raised at the time.
The project is a joint venture between John Holland and McConnell Dowell, which promised to increase cleaning staff to ensure standards would be met.
A Food Services Audit report was commissioned by John Holland and McConnell Dowell in November, but was never completed. However, the partial audit found food-handling practices posed a real and imminent risk to health and safety.
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Issues identified included unsafe food handling, poor sanitation, inadequate temperature control and storage, failures in monitoring and record-keeping, and a lack of effective corrective action.
Workers were directed back to work earlier this week, despite what union officials said were serious and unresolved health concerns.
Genex chief operations officer Arran McGhie earlier this week claimed the initial incident was isolated and said no workers had presented to the on-site nurse with gastrointestinal illness or symptoms.
In a statement late on Thursday, Genex said it was taking additional steps following the “ongoing alleged complaints”.
It said an audit by the camp operator would be carried out, as well as a third-party independent audit, which will reportedly begin next week.
Genex said it would follow all recommendations from the investigation into “all aspects of food safety at the site”.
Genex has been contacted for further comment.
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