The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the primary federal agency tasked with ensuring safe and healthy conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance.
OSHA is responsible for enforcement in the private sector for 29 states, the District of Columbia, and four territories. The remaining states and Puerto Rico set and enforce their own workplace standards under state plans approved by OSHA. State standards must be at least as effective as the federal standards in protecting workers.[1] “Approximately 61 percent of meat and poultry plants inspected by FSIS are located in states where [federal] OSHA oversees worker safety and health.”[2]
U.S. Dept. of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, State Plans https://www.osha.gov/stateplans/
U.S. Government Accountability Office (June 2023) Meat and Poultry Worker Safety: OSHA Should Determine How to Address Persistent Hazards Exacerbated by COVID-19, GAO-23-105104, p. 9, fn 16.
The Food and Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), a division of the USDA, regularly confirms it has no authority to set or enforce health and safety standards for plant workers.[1]
Paradoxically, FSIS sets maximum line speeds in slaughterhouses, which are generally acknowledged to affect worker health and safety; and OSHA, the agency tasked with overseeing worker health and safety, does not play a role in setting line speeds.[2,3]
USDA FSIS (2019) 84 Fed Reg. 52300 Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection. [“… while FSIS recognizes that working conditions in swine slaughter establishments is an important issue, the Agency does not have the authority to regulate issues related to establishment worker safety. OSHA is the Federal agency with statutory and regulatory authority to promote workplace safety and health.” at p. 52305]
U.S. Government Accountability Office (December 2017) Workplace Safety and Health: Better Outreach,
Collaboration, and Information Needed to Help Protect Workers at Meat and Poultry Plants GAO 18-12, p. 38. [“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)— which is responsible for overseeing worker safety and health—does not play a role in regulating line speed, according to FSIS and OSHA officials.”]See, Slaughterhouse Line Speed Regulations and Line Speed Impacts on Slaughter & Processing Workers
Only in a limited capacity. As part of the CDC, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was established as a research agency focused on the study of worker safety and health.[1] NIOSH can only recommend standards for OSHA’s adoption and may conduct health hazard evaluations at the request of employees or employers. NIOSH also can self-initiate studies on occupational safety and health, and it may conduct health hazard evaluations in response to requests from federal, state, or local agencies.[2]
The CDC can also conduct its own evaluations and make recommendations directly to employers. For instance, in 2020, the CDC conducted “walk-throughs” of meat and poultry plants to assess working conditions during the COVID-19 outbreak. They published a report finding that the rapid spread of disease in these plants was due to worker proximity, incentives offered by employers to work while ill, and that “the pace and physical demands of processing work made adherence to face covering recommendations difficult.”[3]
The CDC made several recommendations to counter the spread of the virus in slaughter plants, including one that encouraged companies to slow line speed rates.[4] Collected data showed uneven compliance: 21% of facilities reduced the rate of animal processing, 12% did not, and for 67% of facilities it was unknown.[5]
More recently, the CDC recommended to a large pork processing plant several actions to take, including “decreasing the speed at which work is performed” to address the high rate of musculoskeletal disorders.[6]
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (April 2023) About NIOSH, https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/about/default.html
U.S. Government Accountability Office (June 2023) Meat and Poultry Worker Safety: OSHA Should Determine How to Address Persistent Hazards Exacerbated by COVID-19, GAO-23-105104, p. 12.
Dyal, Dr. J.W. et al., (May 1, 2020) COVID-19 Among Workers in Meat and Poultry Processing Facilities – 19 States, April 2020. US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(18), 557, p. 557.
Dyal, Dr. J.W. et al., (May 1, 2020), p. 559.
Waltenburg, Dr. M.A. et al., (July 10, 2020) Update: COVID-19 Among Workers in Meat and Poultry Processing Facilities – United States, April-May 2020. US Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(27), 887, table 2, p. 890.
Grant, M.P. et al., (2024) Evaluation of Ergonomic Risks, Musculoskeletal Disorders, and Peracetic Acid Exposure Among Employees at a Pork Processing Plant in Michigan, CDC NIOSH, HHE report No. 2021-0117-3397, p. 5.
Not generally for slaughterhouse workers. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) evaluates the safety of chemicals such as antimicrobials sprayed on raw meat, poultry, and machinery to ensure that the meat is safe for consumers to eat. But the FDA’s review does not specifically focus on plant worker safety or health. And FSIS evaluates any chemical risks to its own inspectors, but not to the workers at the plant.[1,2]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assesses chemicals classified as pesticides, like peracetic acid used to disinfect meat and poultry machinery, as part of their chemical registration process which considers user safety. But “this review does not generally include antimicrobial chemicals applied directly to meat and poultry in plants.”[3]
OSHA may regulate the use of any chemicals handled by workers as part of its responsibility to oversee workplace safety and health. But the agency does not conduct reviews of chemicals before they are used in the workplace.[4]
Of particular concern is the use of peracetic acid (PAA). It is one of the most common antimicrobials used to reduce the incidence of Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry and is applied directly to the bird as well as used to clean equipment. The chemical is corrosive and unstable and can be an irritant to the upper respiratory tract, eyes, and skin. There are no OSHA limitations on the permissible exposure limit to PAA for workers.[5,6] However, employers are still required to protect workers from hazardous exposures under the General Duty Clause, and the recommendation of .4ppm as a 15-minute Short Term Exposure Limit “is currently used in the meat and poultry industry as a general guideline for determining PAA health exposure.”[7]
More broadly, the GAO has found that there are “gaps in information sharing and research that have heightened the risk of chemical hazards for slaughterhouse workers and FSIS inspectors.”[8]
U.S. Government Accountability Office (December 2017) Workplace Safety and Health: Better Outreach, Collaboration, and Information Needed to Help Protect Workers at Meat and Poultry Plants, GAO 18-12, p. 42.
U.S. GAO, Workplace Safety and Health. [“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, among others, so that plant workers can be similarly protected.” See, What GAO found]
U.S. GAO, Workplace Safety and Health, p. 41.
U.S. GAO, Workplace Safety and Health, p. 40. [“OSHA does not conduct reviews of chemicals before they are used in the workplace, according to OSHA officials. OSHA officials stated that the agency is limited from taking such an approach, because doing so would overwhelm the agency’s resources.”]
Dittoe, D.K. et al. (2019). The Addition of ViriditecTM Aqueous Ozone to Peracetic Acid as an Antimicrobial Spray Increases Air Quality While Maintaining Salmonella Typhimurium, Non-pathogenic Escherichia coli, and Campylobacter jejuni Reduction on Whole Carcasses. Frontiers in Microbiology, 9, 3180–3180, p. 2.
U.S. Dept. of Labor, OSHA (last updated 1/22/21) OSHA Occupational Chemical Database, Peracetic Acid.
USDA FSIS Environmental, Safety and Health Group (n.d.) Health Hazard Information Sheet, Peroxyacetic Acid (PAA), p. 2. https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2020-08/Peroxyacetic-Acid.pdf
U.S. GAO, Workplace Safety and Health, p. 49.
According to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), OSHA has not been very successful.[1] One reason is that many workers in the slaughter and processing industry do not report illnesses or injuries for fear of losing their jobs or retaliation by employers. Underreporting, both by workers and by employers, is commonplace with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) – the most prevalent injuries for slaughterhouse workers.[2] Negligent or intentional undercounts by employers have also been documented.[3,4]
In their 2023 report, the GAO states that OSHA has not followed through with most (five out of six) of the recommendations made (in 2016 and 2017) to improve slaughterhouse worker safety.[5] And with respect to the only recommendation that was in any way addressed – that updating collaborative efforts with FSIS – the GAO found “little evidence of direct on-the-ground collaboration to help protect meat and poultry workers.”[6]
U.S. Government Accountability Office (June 2023) Meat and Poultry Worker Safety: OSHA Should Determine How to Address Persistent Hazards Exacerbated by COVID-19, GAO-23-105104.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (April 2016) Additional Data Needed to Address Continued Hazards in the Meat and Poultry Industry, GAO-16-337, p. 1.
U.S. Dept. of Labor, OIG (2018) OSHA Needs to Improve the Guidance for its Fatality and Severe Injury Reporting Program to Better Protect Workers, Rpt No. 02-18-203-10-105.
Fagan, Kathleen M. & Hodgson, M. J. (2017). Under-recording of work-related injuries and illnesses: An OSHA priority. Journal of Safety Research, 60, 79–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2016.12.002
U.S. GAO (2023) Meat and Poultry Worker Safety, Appendix IV, p. 69.
U.S. GAO (2023) Meat and Poultry Worker Safety, p. 39. [“In January 2021, OSHA and FSIS officials at the national office began meeting weekly, according to FSIS officials. According to OSHA officials, this continued until November 2021, when the agencies began meeting monthly. However, the agencies did not document the results of these meetings, and officials were unable to provide details such as what was discussed and what collaboration activities occurred as a result.”] [In these meetings, field staff who had direct knowledge of conditions at meat and poultry plants were not included and could have provided information about protecting plant workers during the pandemic.]
Unsuccessfully. The most common ailments for workers in the industry are musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) — cumulative trauma injuries like carpal tunnel or tendinitis that develop through repeated stress over time. In 2001, recognizing that hazards in the meat and poultry industry (and other sectors) marked by labor-intensive, repetitive work constitute “material harm” to workers, OSHA enacted an “ergonomics” standard to be incorporated into the U.S. workplace safety regulations. At the time, the agency noted that 18 years of scientific studies “document extensive and widespread underreporting on the OSHA Log of occupational injuries and illnesses in general.”[1]
However, not long after the standard was adopted, the incoming Bush administration eliminated the rule.[2,3] OSHA’s current policy states that “Even if there are no guidelines specific to your industry, as an employer you still have an obligation under the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) to keep your workplace free from recognized serious hazards, including ergonomic hazards.”[4]
U.S. Dept. of Labor, OSHA (2000) Ergonomics Program Final Rule, 65 Fed. Reg. 68262, 68755.
Human Rights Watch (2004) Blood Sweat, and Fear: Workers’ Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants, p. 49.
U.S. Dept. of Labor, OSHA, Ergonomics Standards and enforcement FAQs
https://www.osha.gov/ergonomics/faqsU.S. Dept. of Labor, OSHA, Ergonomics Standards and enforcement FAQs
There is supposed to be collaboration, but in practice it has been very limited. In 1994, FSIS and OSHA established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on identification and reporting of safety hazards in slaughter plants.[1]
Since that time, the intended collaboration has been regularly called out as extremely weak. In 2005, the GAO found that the MOU was not “being utilized to the full extent possible.”[2] In 2016, the GAO concluded that there were questions about whether the federal government was doing all it could to collect the data it needed to protect workers in meat and poultry plants.[3] And a year later, the GAO determined that collaboration between OSHA and FSIS had not appreciably improved.[4]
Then in 2023, after conducting multiple reviews of the MOU’s implementation, the GAO issued a damning report. Ongoing poor communication and lack of recordkeeping led the GAO to conclude, “we have seen little evidence of direct on-the-ground collaboration to help protect meat and poultry workers. Further, our discussions with OSHA worker safety inspectors and FSIS meat and poultry inspectors indicate little knowledge of the need to collaborate on worker safety.”[5]
USDA FSIS (2022) FSIS and OSHA Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Protect Workers and Enhance Training, https://www.fsis.usda.gov/news-events/news-press-releases/fsis-and-osha-sign-memorandum-understanding-protect-workers-and
U.S. Government Accountability Office (January 2005) Workplace Safety and Health: Safety in the Meat and Poultry Industry, while Improving, Could Be Further Strengthened, GAO-05-96, p. 46. [“The efforts called for by the memorandum of understanding to reinforce and supplement the training of USDA inspectors so they are able to recognize and refer serious workplace hazards in meat and poultry plants have lapsed.”]
U.S. Government Accountability Office (April 2016) Workplace Safety and Health: Additional Data Needed to Address Continued Hazards in the Meat and Poultry Industry, GAO-16-337, p. 47.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (December 2017) Workplace Safety and Health: Better Outreach, Collaboration, and Information Needed to Help Protect Workers at Meat and Poultry Plants, GAO-18-12. [“The MOU calls for OSHA and FSIS to coordinate the development of standards and consult on matters of common concern related to worker safety, but officials at both agencies told us this has not occurred.” p. 37] [“Collaboration between OSHA and FSIS is limited and has improved little since we recommended in 2005 that the two agencies strengthen their 1994 MOU on worker safety.” p. 49]
U.S. Government Accountability Office (June 2023) Meat and Poultry Worker Safety: OSHA Should Determine How to Address Persistent Hazards Exacerbated by COVID-19, GAO-23-105104, p. 39. [“In January 2021, OSHA and FSIS officials at the national office began meeting weekly, according to FSIS officials. According to OSHA officials, this continued until November 2021, when the agencies began meeting monthly. However, the agencies did not document the results of these meetings, and officials were unable to provide details such as what was discussed and what collaboration activities occurred as a result.”] [In these meetings, field staff who had direct knowledge of conditions at meat and poultry plants were not included and could have provided information about protecting plant workers during the pandemic.]
As a federal employer, FSIS is required to establish and maintain an occupational safety and health program for its employees, i.e., its plant inspectors, and the program must be consistent with OSHA’s standards.
OSHA has the authority to monitor and inspect FSIS employers in response to a report or complaint about hazards at a slaughter and processing plant, but the agency can only issue a Notice of Unsafe or Unhealthful Working Conditions – it cannot assess a penalty.[1,2]
U.S. Government Accountability Office (December 2017) Workplace Safety and Health: Better Outreach, Collaboration, and Information Needed to Help Protect Workers at Meat and Poultry Plants, GAO 18-12, pp. 6-8.
U.S. Dept. of Labor OSHA (2022) Memorandum of Understanding between The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration and The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. Section B, Making Referrals. [“If OSHA opens an inspection that documents worker safety violations that could endanger FSIS employees, OSHA will notify the FSIS point of contact as soon as practicable, so that FSIS can take appropriate action to protect its employees.”]
Of course. In early 2023, Senator Cory Booker introduced bill S.270 – Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act of 2023.[1] The bill would provide funding for additional OSHA inspectors and offer protections for workers who report injuries to OSHA. In addition, the bill would prohibit waivers (subject to limited exceptions) related to line speeds. It was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry in February 2023. However, no further action appears to have been taken.
S.270 – Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act of 2023, https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/270