Leon’s research found that bonuses are often linked to injury and production rates making it contradictive to a healthier workplace. Company operated clinics are seen by workers as an extension of management and workers claim and in return clinics often fail to take repeated complaints seriously by often stating that workers are looking for excuses not to work.
Underreporting of non-fatal occupational health and safety accidents and diseases across all U.S. industry sectors is estimated at 69%. In reviewing the research Harmse found that companies only report work days lost and workers are often re-assigned to other tasks and the incidence or disease is never reported. Worker interviews by Human Rights Watch detailed the following practices:
What the workers say
Leon’s research included findings of the HRW that recorded the following in actual interviews:
The editor of blog GIGjob profiles reported an interview conducted by an anonymous 30 year old worker who stated that “Taking regular work breaks is not always so easy. If we are not done with the truckload of chickens, we cannot leave work at the end of our shift, we are slave...; you just have to be very fast. You’re not always working safely because you have to keep up with the production line. The managers always want more production in less time”.
On production line speeds, U.S. poultry workers stated:
After complaints from the Southern Poverty Law Centre, OSHA found workers suffered Muscular skeletal disorders (MSD) at a U.S. poultry producer and that the employer failed to record and properly manage the injuries and medical treatment of injured employees, failed to refer workers to physicians and discouraged them from seeking medical attention. The employer received 11 citations carrying $102,600 in total fines including two more serious general-duty-clause citations for alleged MSD hazards, carrying penalties of $14,000 for failing to provide a safe and healthy work environment.
Our attitude could be “Well that’s in America! It’s not us!”, and that would be true but literature indicates that SA follows the US production model meaning we can safely say that some of these issues – if not all – are South African too!. A more prudent response would be to use this invaluable review as the basis for an honest reflection of the state of your abattoir.
A special thanks to Leon Harmse for his willingness to share his published work with us.
http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/2/197
Harmse, J.L.; Engelbrecht, J.C.; Bekker, J.L. The Impact of Physical and Ergonomic Hazards on Poultry Abattoir Processing Workers: A Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13, 197.
Author
Leon Harmse