FAWU claims workers have not been tested for listeriosis
The Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) says its members working at the factories fingered as the source of the outbreak of listeriosis have not been screened for the deadly air-borne disease.
FAWU says its members who work at the three factories implicated in the outbreak have not been tested.
The union's general-secretary Katishi Masemola says the union wants the two companies, Enterprise Foods and Rainbow Chicken, to pay the costs of the screening.
Strains of listeria were found in an Enterprise Foods factory in Polokwane, another in Germiston and a Rainbow Chicken facility in Sasolburg in the Free State.
Masemola says some workers have been asked to stay at home, as the factories have been temporarily shut, but no arrangements have been made to screen workers who might have been exposed to the deadly disease.
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"The risk that they have it, that they might have been exposed to this disease. It's only a professional that could clear them. We are hoping that the employer will work together with us to allow workers to undergo the screening."
The World Health Organisation has dubbed the outbreak as the largest of its kind. The disease has claimed the lives of at least 180 people.
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Tiger Brands has denied that its products carry the fatal strain, insisting that all safety and quality control measures were up to standard.