US poultry plant to pay US$1-million fine

Maryland's labour officials imposed a US$1-million fine on Allen Family Foods because of ignoring warnings to improve a dangerous workplace for more than a decade.

The penalty against the Eastern Shore poultry processor is the largest ever levied in a single inspection by the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health division of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Inspectors say they found 51 violations at Allen's large processing plant in Hurlock while investigating a December incident in which a worker was seriously injured.

Labor and Industry Commissioner Ron DeJuliis said the state imposed such a high fine because the 90-year-old Seaford, Delaware, producer has racked up nearly 200 violations in the past dozen years but has made little headway in correcting problems.

An Allen executive said the third-generation, family-run business plans to contest the citation, which it said resulted from the state adopting "a more aggressive enforcement policy."

The company has 15 days to appeal or pay the fine.

Allen, which employs 1,800 people in Maryland, is among the major poultry producers in the state, selling 600 million pounds of chicken a year, mostly in the Northeast and west to Chicago.