The government’s idea infuriated the bakers, a hard message: Shall we be left without bread ?! At stake is a production halt and higher prices – Topky

In the case of bakeries, the costs should be higher by hundreds of thousands of euros per month. Bakers recall that they belong to critical infrastructure, but in the first and second waves they were excluded from any aid and are not able to bear these costs today. This would force them to either suspend production or drastically increase their sales prices again.

“The government is transferring state responsibility to employers. In the case of bakers, it was not able to propose compensatory measures in more than a year and during the tenure of the two agriculture ministers. He is now planning to introduce a new “test tax” for employers. Bakers are in an economic situation that simply does not allow them to increase costs by hundreds of thousands of euros a month. They have concluded contracts with customers and traders do not want to open them. The government must realize that it simply cannot create new costs from week to week without any compensation. “ said the head of the Slovak Association of Bakers, Confectioners and Pastors Milan Lapšanský.

No compensation

Bakers point out that bakeries are subject to economic mobilization, as they have a duty to ensure the supply of strategic food – bread and pastries to the people of the country. However, they need a critical mass of employees for this.

“Given the current COVID vending machine and the Prime Minister’s statement that testing costs will have to be borne by employers, they would have to test employees at least every other day,” they said. and up to € 15,000 per PCR test. ”This would be around € 200,000 per month per industrial bakery. With enormous pressure on product prices due to rising prices for all inputs from raw materials, energy, packaging, services to labor costs, they would not even be able to cover production costs. “ they added.

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“If the government approves this regulation without a functioning compensation mechanism, it will sign under empty bread and pastry counters throughout Slovakia. In the current critical situation, no baker can rehabilitate such increased production costs. We therefore call on the government to provide a system of testing employees at the state’s expense or to find a quick and easy way to offset the costs of testing for employers. This system needs to be up and running immediately. “ stressed Lapšanský.

The Slovak Association of Bakers, Confectioners and Pasta brings together producers from all over Slovakia. It has almost 500 members from SZČO to large bakeries. The members of the association ensure most of the consumption of bread, pastries, confectionery and pasta on a daily basis by Slovaks and Slovaks and employ more than 12,000 workers.

The government should discuss new covid measures from 12 noon today.