Poultry workers are still inadequately protected

[Omaha Steve]

http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/poultry-workers-are-still-inadequately-protected/

September 28, 2009 in Confined Space @ TPH, Occupational Health & Safety | by The Pump Handle

by Tom O’Connor from Progressive Voices

All is well at the poultry plants run by the House of Raeford in the Carolinas, at least according to an investigation by the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. A year and a half ago, the Charlotte Observer published an exposé on the company, uncovering a series of abuses in its treatment of injured workers and failure to report job injuries. In a recent follow-up story, the Observer reported on the results of the Commission’s audit of the company, which cleared House of Raeford of nearly all the allegations contained in the Observer’s in-depth investigation.

“The audit team’s findings indicate that, with a few minor exceptions, the House of Raeford is in compliance with the Workers’ Compensation Act. The investigation failed to uncover substantial proof of incidents as reported by the newspaper,” a staff memo concluded.


A closer reading of the results of the Commission’s investigation, however, suggests that something very wrong was happening at the House of Raeford’s poultry operations-something that cries out for action by job safety agencies in the Carolinas. One of the major findings of the Observer’s series was that the company failed to report many injuries that occurred on the plant floor. Upon examining this issue, a Commission investigator reported in an internal staff memo that

“claim records indicate the Columbia Farms plant only filed 10 claims for 2007. That seems to be an incredibly small number for such a large employer. Furthermore (the) listing of claimants only includes two Hispanic-sounding names, which seems peculiar given the article quotes a manager saying his workforce is about 80% to 90% Hispanic.”

Let’s get this straight. House of Raeford operates two plants in South Carolina under the name Columbia Farms, employing some 1,800 workers altogether, the great majority of whom were, until recently, Hispanic immigrants. The Commission’s investigation found that only 10 job injuries in one year were reported in an industry with one of the highest injury rates-a figure which its own staff calls

“incredible”–and only a couple of them involved Hispanics. Over a ten-year period, the company’s two plants reported only 196 injuries “few of whose claimants names are Hispanic.”

So, either: 1) the House of Raeford plants are incredibly safe places to work relative to other poultry plants and the Hispanic workers at these plants have been particularly successful in avoiding job injuries; or 2) there is something very fishy about the injury numbers the company is reporting.

I don’t know, but I find the second explanation to be a whole lot more believable.

FULL story at link.