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Several years after chemical leaks killed one House of Raeford Farms worker in North Carolina and sent many others to the hospital, state regulators have cited the poultry company for a host of new workplace safety problems, many involving hazardous chemicals.
The new citations include 49 serious safety violations at the company's chicken processing plant in Teachey, in Eastern North Carolina. The proposed fines total about $178,000, an enormous penalty by N.C. OSHA standards.
The inspections that led to the proposed penalties began about a month after the Observer published a series of stories about working conditions at House of Raeford – and the failure of regulators to get tough on companies that repeatedly run afoul of workplace rules.
The N.C. Occupational Safety and Health division conducted three inspections and cited the company for repeated violations related to the use of hazardous ammonia, among other things.
In a statement Tuesday, House of Raeford said it quickly corrected all but one of the violations and is working to fix the remaining problem. The company said many of the violations at the Teachey plant – which it acquired in 2005 and converted to process chicken in 2006 – “could be considered startup problems.”
The company also said it is challenging the classification or substance of most of the citations.
The N.C.-based company has requested an informal conference, in which its representatives will have the opportunity to meet with state OSHA officials and seek penalty reductions.
N.C. OSHA rarely imposes such large fines. Less than one-tenth of 1 percent of inspections resulted in proposed fines exceeding $100,000 in recent years.
Before the latest round of fines, N.C. OSHA had cited House of Raeford for more than 60 other serious violations since 2001. In those six inspections, the agency proposed fines totaling about $117,000 but reduced them to $26,500 following negotiations with the company.
N.C. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, a Republican who was recently elected to her third term, has said she thinks her department can do more to improve workplace safety by working with companies than by issuing large fines. But she has said she does not participate in negotiations to reduce OSHA penalties.
Peter Dooley, a workplace safety consultant who has examined poultry plants, said he thinks the fines proposed for House of Raeford are appropriate given the potential dangers of the chemicals commonly used in such factories.
“If companies aren't controlling the chemicals properly,” said Dooley, who has helped lead groups that advocate for workplace safety, “they could have releases into the communities that could be disastrous. … This should be seen as a blessing in terms of possibly preventing a serious incident from happening.”
Eight of the problems found at the Teachey plant were deemed “repeat” violations – a category intended for companies that violate the same safety rule two or more times within a three-year period. The law allows penalties of up to $70,000 for repeat violations.
In 2003, House of Raeford worker Bruce Glover died after a leak sent chlorine gas seeping into the company's Rose Hill plant. The next year, a major ammonia leak at that plant forced a large-scale evacuation and sent 17 workers to the hospital with respiratory problems and burning throats. N.C. OSHA cited the company for chemical violations after each of those accidents – and each time agreed to slash the proposed penalties.
After the 2004 ammonia leak, regulators found that the company didn't do enough to prevent and detect such accidents and had not installed an alarm system to speed evacuations.
Following the three inspections at the nearby Teachey plant this year, OSHA inspectors found similar violations related to the factory's ammonia refrigeration system. Anhydrous ammonia is often used in the refrigeration systems inside poultry plants. But if large amounts leak, it can cause serious respiratory problems and even death.
Two of the recent inspections were prompted by complaints, and the third resulted from a referral by a government official. But further detail about those complaints won't be made public until the cases are closed, a department spokesman said. It's unclear how long it will take to resolve the case.
House of Raeford is one of the nation's largest poultry processors, with seven chicken and turkey plants in the Carolinas. In 2005, the company bought the former Circle S turkey plant in Teachey, about 40 miles north of Wilmington. The converted processing plant now employs about 650.
The plant manager is Cowan Johnson, the grandson of company chairman Marvin Johnson.
