More than 200 images and video clips taken inside the Baiada Poultry plant in Laverton North show uncovered raw chickens sitting atop plastic bags full of chickens as well as cockroaches inside empty storage containers.
Baiada is one of Australia's biggest chicken producers and a main supplier to Coles in Victoria. It owns brands Steggles and Lilydale and also supplies KFC, Aldi and Woolworths.
A worker, Sarel Singh, was decapitated at the Laverton North plant last year and other safety issues are captured in the images including boxes and crates packed precariously and safety exits blocked by bins.
A picket and blockade at the site today enters its 12th day with the company pushing for stronger police intervention to end it after it won Supreme Court orders against the National Union of Workers and the union's staff. The NUW says nearly half the workforce at Laverton North are engaged as contractors, cash-in-hand workers or from labour hire firms with some paid below minimum wage.
Baiada have rejected the claims, but signed statements by former and current workers allege cash in hand workers are paid as little as $8 an hour. One said he was paid every Friday in cash, received no superannuation and worked with about 50 people engaged in the same way.
Worker Phuoc Dang, who has worked at Baiada for 11 years, yesterday said there had been a large increase in temporary workers, particularly after about 50 staff were made redundant in the middle of the year.
A WorkSafe Victoria spokesman said it was still investigating the 2010 death of Sarel Singh.
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