By Trey Mewes, Austin Daily Herald

A state report released Wednesday found Minnesota agencies need to update and better publicize laws concerning meatpacking worker rights and update compliance data.

The report, compiled by the Office of the Legislative Auditor, calls on lawmakers to clarify language in the 2007 Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights and consider expanding the law or mandate better enforcement.

The legislative auditor’s office found the Department of Labor and Industry only sent out one mailing to Minnesota meatpacking employers in 2007 and did nothing to inform employers or ensure enforcement since.

“It was some surprise to us that the agency had done so little, given the fact that they were specifically required by the law to do so,” David Kirchner, evaluation manager for the report, said.

Kirchner and other staff visited Hormel Foods Corp. and Quality Pork Processors Inc. plants in Austin, along with Hormel’s Jennie-O plant in Willmar.

Executives at two smaller plants unrelated to Hormel or QPP were unaware of the Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights, according to the report.

Legislative auditor staff said the law’s limited and ambiguous language make it unclear whether enforcing employers to inform workers about the 2007 law would make a difference. Many workers chosen by employers at every plant said they didn’t know about the 2007 law, but had a general idea about their rights as meatpacking employees.

It’s unclear just who is a meatpacking industry worker according to the law. Many Minnesota plants use cleaning services that may not be covered under the 2007 bill, and a provision requiring employers to provide labor rights information in a worker’s “native language” is impractical in some cases.

“There’s over 100 languages spoken in Burma,” Kirchner said. “If a worker does speak Burmese but also speaks a home dialect … we thought it was sufficient for the company to provide information in Burmese.”

In addition, the report highlights data issues within the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Division. MNOSHA routinely inspects meatpacking firms because of the industry’s notable injury record, but the data MNOSHA inspectors use is out of date, according to the report.

Auditors found two plants missing from MNOSHA records when they searched through U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

The Labor Department has promised to take steps to give out legal information on the law biannually, as well as to post information on the Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights on its website. In addition, MNOSHA will incorporate USDA data from now on, according to a Jan. 16 letter from Ken Peterson, the state’s Labor Department commissioner.

The report also highlights several familiar trends to the Austin area. Meatpacking workers across the state are commonly immigrants, but more plants are hiring African and Burmese refugees.

In addition, workplace injuries reported at Minnesota plants had declined over the past few years, though meat industry critics say many workers don’t always report injuries. Kirchner acknowledged staff was unable to verify how many repetitive stress injuries industry workers suffer.

Hormel Foods Corp. and QPP did not return requests for comment.