Ex-workers sue chicken plant over Covid outbreak

Former workers at a poultry factory who claim they caught coronavirus in a mass outbreak at the plant can continue legal action against their former employers.

Public Health Wales said there were over 200 confirmed Covid-19 cases linked to the 2 Sisters plant in Llangefni, on Anglesey, in June 2020.

The group are suing 2 Sisters Food Group, alleging they contracted Covid-19 as a result of a breach of duty, breach of contract and negligence.

Their case was thrown out last year but they have now won a High Court appeal, allowing the case to continue.

Lawyers for 2 Sisters previously argued the claimants could not prove how they caught the virus and if it was connected to the factory.

The 2 Sisters factory closed down permanently in March 2023, with the loss of over 700 jobs, after the company said the site was old and needed too much investment to bring it up to standard.

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, its site was one of several food processing factories in Wales that experienced outbreaks of Covid-19.

At the time, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said officials were looking at the level of risk in the food industry.

Mark Edwards, Glynne Roberts, Nia Williams and Brian Perry worked on the chicken production line and claim they worked "shoulder to shoulder" and all fell ill with the virus that month.

As part of their claim, they say Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at work regulations had not been properly followed.

The company accepts the staff worked in close proximity with each other, but denies they were "shoulder to shoulder".

The firm said it implemented enhanced hygiene measures at the factory which was temporarily closed on 18 June 2020.

At the start of their legal action, the former employees had not obtained expert medical evidence to the claim.

Their lawyers said occupational health experts and virologists would be asked to give their opinion before the case went to trial.

They also said the company should disclose evidence about the outbreak before they could ask for expert opinion to back up the claim.

Lawyers for 2 Sisters argued the claimants could not prove when or how they had caught the virus and if it had any connection to the factory.

In January 2024 they asked for the case to be struck out at the county court in Caernarfon on the basis that Mr Edwards and the others could not prove the cause of their illness and that their claim was doomed to fail.

In July, Judge Wendy Owen ruled there was no real prospect of the claim succeeding without medical evidence and no other compelling reason why the case should go to trial.

The judge said the issue of causation and medical opinion was a crucial element which should have already been investigated before proceedings were commenced, and gave a summary judgement against the former workers.

But permission to appeal the case was granted in December 2024 and a hearing before a High Court judge in Cardiff was held in April.

In a judgement handed down at the end of May, High Court judge Sir Peter Lane said the summary judgment process was "somewhat draconian in nature" and courts should avoid conducting what has come to be described as a "mini trial" of a case.

Sir Peter said Judge Owen "fell into error" in effectively conducting a "mini trial" without the benefit of the evidence that would have been available had the case been allowed to proceed to trial.

He found that in a claim where the costs of an expert are likely to be significant, when set against the likely value of the claims, it is "plainly proportionate" for the former workers to have proceeded with the claim in this way.

Allowing the appeal, he said the claimants may face "an uphill task" but Judge Owen could not be satisfied the claimants had no real prospect of succeeding.

The date for the next hearing is yet to be decided.