TIMCON calls for urgent keyworker clarity

20 March 2020


The Timber Packaging & Pallet Confederation (TIMCON) has asked the Government to urgently clarify that workers in wooden pallet and packaging companies are included in its list of key workers.

The Government has listed workers involved in ‘food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods’ and those ‘working on transport systems through which supply chains pass’. However, it has not specified which job roles are included. TIMCON asked its members to sign a letter calling for the clarification.

An extract of the letter includes the following passage: "As timber packaging and pallet businesses, we write to stress in the strongest terms the importance of including supply chain workers in the Government’s definition of key workers, during the COVID-19 crisis. These people cannot work from home. We need them to be there in person to keep goods moving from origin to consumers. If this doesn’t happen, the pharmaceutical, food and drink supply chains upon which people rely, will fail."