US agency, poultry plant waging court fight over inspection
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A federal agency is continuing its legal fight to inspect a Georgia poultry plant after a judge recommended that a warrant for the inspection be denied.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration wants to inspect the Mar-Jac poultry plant in Gainesville.
OSHA maintains that high rates of injuries to workers at the plant require an expanded inspection, which company officials have tried to prevent.
The Times reports that U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Clay Fuller found that OSHA needed to establish "probable cause" so that inspection warrants do not become "tools of harassment." Fuller decided that standard wasn't met.
OSHA began investigating in February, when a worker at the plant sustained third-degree burns on the hands and face. The agency then sought a warrant to conduct an expanded inspection of the facility.
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Information from: The Times, http://www.gainesvilletimes.com