Worker decapitated in chicken factory

[Flashermac]

 

A man has been decapitated in a horrific accident at a chicken processing factory in Melbourne, Australia.

 

Mr Sarel Singh, 34, was killed instantly when he was sucked into a machine and decapitated in an incident that has now placed the entire poultry processing industry under review.

 

The factory was already under investigation over claims of unlawful and unethical treatment of its majority migrant work force, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Lateline programme reported.

 

Mr Singh's brother, Harry, said that Sarel had migrated from India four years ago 'in the hope of finding a better life in Australia'.

 

But Sarel had told his brother, who lives in India, that his job at the Melbourne factory was 'hell' and he was planning to return home.

 

'He used to say that life working at that place was like hell.

 

'He said it's a very hard job and he was tired of it.

 

'But due to the burden of the loans and debts over here and in Australia too, he had to work over there and he was struggling hard.'

 

The National Union of Workers (NUW) said Sarel had just finished a four-hour shift when he was asked to go back and re-clean a packing area.

 

He was standing on a ladder hosing down a machine when he was swept into it and instantly decapitated.

 

Mr Tim Kennedy of the NUW said he and the factory workers were shocked by the decapitation.

 

'It is absolutely horrific in a civilised society that we have now the fact that these things still occur - it is just not acceptable,' he said.

 

He claimed that in order to maintain the returns the factory wanted, it had increased the risk to workers by speeding up the machinery so that

20 to 40 birds a minute could be processed.

 

He said that on the night when Mr Singh was killed the machine was running 'at absolute capacity'.

 

Instead of packing up to 40 birds a minute, inquiries had found that the machine was working at top speed and processing 183 birds a minute.

 

Australians shocked by news of the decapitation poured out their anger on a newspaper's online comment page.

 

'Sadly for many immigrants the reality of living in this nation is that it is not the Utopia they envisaged,' wrote one man.

 

'Many of them (and non-immigrants) end up in dead end, unsafe jobs such as this.'

 

 

 

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[Guest lazyphil]

sorry to be predictable but most in oz are (illegal)immigrants!

 

 

horrible story though. fecked up.

[Bangkoktraveler]

The guy was Indian so he probably was Hindu. Why would a vegetarian be working at a slaughter house?

 

183 birs a minute - that's almost 11,000 birds an hour.