Day 093 - 28 Feb 95 - Page 68
1 inspection tasks would be for trained employees? I might
2 surmise that it is whether they have been properly trained
3 in certain aspects but, equally, that might be completely
4 wrong. Do you know what it means?
5 A. No.
6
7 Q. Do you have something to put on that or are you just
8 enquiring what it covers?
9
10 MR. MORRIS: If the USA DA is responsible for standards in your
11 process plants, then you have to take seriously the
12 information which they compile because they are the experts
13 on the ground, are they not?
14 A. We are better experts than what they are. Our people
15 at Tyson are far better trained, far better qualified than
16 the inspectors. What it does say here is that something,
17 there were some corrective actions that were taken. It
18 does not mean, by any means, that our employees are not
19 trained properly.
20
21 Q. It does not say anything about corrective action. That is
22 something which may or may not have been taken. This is a
23 natural analysis of critical points of an operation by the
24 statutory authorities, the US DA. What action they took
25 after that is open to debate or information or whatever.
26 But they do not seem there, do they, to be satisfied with
27 the training standard in 74 per cent of the trained
28 employees category tested?
29 A. You are absolutely wrong. If they are not satisfied,
30 they will stop the line. They will not let the employees
31 go back to the line.
32
33 Q. But, surely, if they are not satisfied they make a note in
34 their official daily inspection, or whatever it is, that
35 something is minor, major or critical; whether they stop
36 the line is another question?
37 A. No, no, no, you are totally wrong again. What it does
38 mean is that they ask something, just like somebody ask you
39 a question: "Your hair is not parted in the middle" or
40 whatever. That is what it means, that they took some
41 action, it was a corrective action. It does not mean that
42 it resulted in improper handling or hygienic conditions of
43 chickens. It is totally the opposite. The inspectors have
44 the authority to stop the line if they do not feel that the
45 employees are trained, if they do not feel that the
46 employees are doing the proper things.
47
48 Q. They have the authority to stop the line because they are
49 the experts on the conformity, as you put it, to the
50 standards that the US DA would expect?
51 A. They are experts. They are not the experts. They are
52 experts; that is what they trained for, yes.
53
54 Q. So far as equipment disassembly, which is the next one, it
55 says in this one that out of 64 tests made -----
56 A. I am sorry, I have a bad copy.
57
58 Q. It is the second one.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is beneath the "trained employees".
