Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 12/8/17



A new report by the General Accounting Office recommends that three agencies better coordinate their efforts to ensure safe working environments for meat and poultry plant employees.

In reviewing past inspection data on meat and poultry plant employees, GAO found that increased inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were limited in their usefulness to workers, because workers may be reluctant to contact OSHA for fear of employer retaliation. In particular, OSHA may not be aware of the scope of problems workers could face gaining timely access to bathrooms.

GAO said efforts to implement and evaluate a 1994 memorandum of understanding (MOU) -- the main vehicle for collaboration on worker safety between OSHA and USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service's (FSIS) -- have been limited. For example, according to FSIS officials, FSIS inspectors may be reluctant to make referrals to OSHA about hazards in plants because they fear it could trigger an OSHA inspection of FSIS.

Further, gaps in federal efforts create challenges to protecting workers from certain chemical hazards. For example, depending on a chemical's intended use, it may not undergo a federal review of the risks it poses to worker safety and health before it is used in a plant. FSIS collects information on how to protect its inspectors from new chemicals, but it does not have a process to share this information with OSHA or plants. 

GAO recommended:

1) Additional steps to encourage workers to disclose sensitive concerns during OSHA inspections of meat and poultry plants; for example, by considering additional off-site interviews or exploring other options to obtain information anonymously.

2) OSHA specifically should gather more information to determine the extent to which bathroom access is a problem and how to address any identified issues.

3) OSHA should update its guidance for employers on how to manage their health units to address management challenges.

4) OSHA should work with FSIS to assess the implementation of their memorandum of understanding and make any needed changes to ensure improved collaboration.

5) The FSIS Administrator should work with OSHA to evaluate the implementation of the MOU and make any needed changes to ensure improved collaboration.

6) FSIS should develop a process to regularly share the worker safety information it collects during its review of new chemicals with FSIS inspectors, plant management, OSHA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

7) NIOSH should consider including in the agency's research agenda a proposal for examining the extent of peracetic acid's use in combination with other chemicals in meat and poultry plants, and any safety and health hazards these combinations may pose to workers.

In response, the National Employment Law Project released a statement from Deborah Berkowitz, senior fellow for worker safety and health and a former OSHA chief of staff.

“We applaud the recommendations of the [GAO] report calling on three government agencies … to do a better job of coordinating and investigating workplace hazards in the meat and poultry industry to ensure that workers are protected," Berkowitz said.

“This report comes at a time when the poultry industry has petitioned the USDA for exemption from line speed limits so poultry plants can run their processing lines as fast as they want — which would clearly jeopardize worker safety and health. We call on all three government agencies to implement the GAO recommendations.”

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