A judge has upheld citations for a NY-based chicken processor found to be violating rules related to chemical and mechanical hazards for workers. The citations were issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). Murray’s Chicken, of South Fallsburg, NY, was cited in May 2012 for a number of worker safety and health violations. According to OSHA, the company failed to inform employees about the hazards of products that contain peracetic acid and bleach and also failed to train employees who worked with machines that could unexpectedly start up. “This is a critical decision that this employer and others in the industry should pay close attention to,” said Robert Kulick, OSHA’s regional administrator in New York. “Not informing production employees that the chemical hazards they worked with exposed them to potential illness, or that the absence of machine maintenance procedures left them vulnerable to lacerations, amputations or death, is unacceptable and will be enforced to the highest extent of the law.” Employees of the company had told an OSHA compliance officer that they had experienced symptoms of respiratory ailment and rashes consistent with exposure to harsh acidic chemicals and chlorine bleach. The judge also agreed with OSHA that the company’s machine maintenance procedures lacked sufficient detail to protect employees from serious injury while working with the equipment. Employees were not given basic training on how to avoid such injuries, and two employees were injured after attempting to perform maintenance on equipment without proper safety knowledge.
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