State reduces Agriprocessors safety fines
ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 29, 2008

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State occupational safety regulators have reduced fines against Agriprocessors Inc. for numerous safety and health violations.

The Iowa Division of Labor Services fined the Postville company $182,000 in March for 39 violations of work place safety rules.


After company officials agreed to correct violations on Tuesday, the fines were reduced to $42,750, said Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, which includes the Labor Services Division.

Koonce said Thursday that the fine reduction followed a routine process in which a company is allowed to respond to the violations found by inspectors and then allowed meet with inspectors to explain how it responded to fix the problems. That process concluded on Tuesday, and the agency ordered the fines reduced, Koonce said.

Some of the more serious violations found during inspections between October 2007 and February 2008 were:

-Improper storage and use of hazardous chemicals.

-Improper labeling of emergency exits and alarms that couldn't be heard by some employees.

-Failure to develop emergency response plans.

-Improper programs for use of respirators and for the use of blood-borne pathogens.

The enforcement action against the company for the safety violations was one of the largest against a single Iowa company in the number of violations and the level of the initial fine assessed, Koonce said.

"This is one of the largest ones that has ever happened," she said. "It was very big."

In addition, Koonce said an investigation into allegations that the plant employed minors has resumed.

The investigation into child labor law violations was under way before a May 12 raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that resulted in the arrest of nearly 400 people. The inquiry was halted when federal agents took the company's employment records.

"It's in process again but it will tak e a little bit of time because the feds have some of the records," Koonce said Thursday.

The investigation, which is being conducted with help from the federal government, includes reviewing wage records and interviewing workers.

If founded, the company could be prosecuted on state misdemeanor charges. The law says a prosecutor may bring one count for each day each underage child works. Each offense is a $60 fine, Koonce said.

The plant, owned by Aaron Rubashkin of New York, is the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant.

The U.S. attorney's office said 302 workers from the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant were charged with federal crimes after the immigration raid. Of those, 297 pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison time or probation.

The remaining five have cases pending in federal court.

Charges include use of false identification documents and false use of Social Security numbers.

Initially, 389 workers were taken in the raid. Charges against six workers were dismissed because they were juveniles.

U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth said the operation was the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S.

Last week, Rubashkin released a statement saying the company was seeking a new chief executive officer for the plant, which has been led by his son Sholom Rubashkin.





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