Federal OSHA proposed a $283,000 penalty against an employer responsible for staffing a Hershey's chocolate packaging facilty in Palmyra, Pennsylvania for willfully violating workplace safety regulations. The agency's action followed a formal complaint lodged by workers at the plant, many of whom were foreign students employed under the State Department's J-1 visa program. A few hundred of them walked off the job last summer to protest the poor working conditions in the Hershey plant. The New York Times' Julie Preston reported at the time about workers' injuries related to heavy lifting, twisting, reaching, and the speed at which they were expected to work.
The situation at the Hershey plant also illustrates how far companies have moved away from traditional employer-employee relationships. As Preston reported:
"A spokesman for Hershey's, Kirk Saville, said the chocolate company did not directly operate the Palmyra packing plant, which is managed by a company called Exel. A spokeswoman for Exel said it had found the student workers through another staffing company. The spokeswoman said: 'We contract with a staffing agency to provide temporary employees, some from the local work force and some J-1 visa holders.'"Read the rest of this post...
