Funeral directors make urgent request to be classified essential workers

The Funeral Directors Association has urgently requested that the government grant the sector’s workers essential health worker status, RNZ reports. An estimated 80 funerals were postponed in Auckland yesterday, as a result of the city’s move to Alert Level 3. Funeral directors are classified as essential services, but not as essential health workers – a big difference according to Funeral Directors Association president Gary Taylor. “We are currently using our own PPE…” Taylor said. “And at the moment the cost of that is being borne by funeral directors… We are on that front line, dealing with families. We can’t be sure of their movements, and it would be good for the ministry to view us… as they do those people that are dealing with families in the DHB or the health service.”