Bill > SB406

This bill, known as the Meat Packing and Food Processing Protection Act, aims to enhance workplace safety in the meat packing and food processing industries by establishing facility health and safety committees, creating an industry workers' rights coordinator within the Department of Labor and Industry, and imposing penalties for non-compliance. Employers with 100 or more employees at a single facility that are licensed under the Pennsylvania Meat and Poultry Hygiene Law, subject to specific food safety regulations, or inspected by the Food Safety Inspection Service, and are registered as food facilities under federal law, will be required to provide new employees with information on health risks, workers' compensation rights, and the facility health and safety committee, in their primary language if at least 5% of the workforce speaks it. Employers must also provide worker safety training during working hours at the regular rate of pay and cover out-of-pocket expenses for emergency medical transportation if an employee is injured or becomes ill on the job and requires immediate off-site medical attention not covered by insurance. A key provision is the mandatory establishment of joint labor-management facility health and safety committees, composed of at least an equal number of employer and employee representatives, to identify and communicate employee concerns, review safety programs, conduct inspections, and document hazards, with employee representatives having protected time and pay for committee duties. The bill also establishes an Industry Workers' Rights Coordinator within the Department of Labor and Industry to investigate complaints and ensure compliance, with employers facing escalating daily penalties for failing to comply with the act's provisions, though collective bargaining agreements can waive these provisions if explicitly stated.