Workers in US poultry farms denied bathroom breaks, forced to wear diapers: Oxfam America

A new report by Oxfam America, alleges that poultry industry workers in the US are "routinely denied breaks to use the bathroom" in order to improve the production.

As per the study, the conditions are so inhumane that in some cases, workers have no choice but to "urinate and defecate while standing on the line" and "wear diapers at work." They avoid drinking liquids for long periods of time and bear considerable pain in order to keep their jobs, reports The Washington Post.

Oxfam America is an arm of the international anti-poverty and injustice group.

The findings came from hundreds of interviews with line workers from some of the largest poultry processing companies in the United States, including Tyson Foods, Pilgrim's, and Perdue.

A poultry processing plant funnels chickens through assembly lines at a rate of 140 bird per minute, which has been great for business but very rigorous for those who work on the line.

Debbie Berkowitz, a senior fellow at the National Employment Law Project who used to work with the government agency that oversaw industry practices, described the condition after the report published, saying, "In my work at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, I witnessed the dangers: poultry workers stand shoulder to shoulder on both sides of long conveyor belts, most using scissors or knives, in cold, damp, loud conditions, making the same forceful movements thousands upon thousands of times a day, as they skin, pull, cut, debone and pack the chickens. The typical plant processes 180,000 birds a day. A typical worker handles 40 birds a minute," reported The Washington Post.

According to Oxfam, workers reportedly wait for more than an hour for someone to swap in if anyone came at all. Many of them said they were forced to urinate or defecate where they stood or leave the line without permission because no help arrived. At some plants, workers have come to expect no relief, leading them to take embarrassing measures to withstand the conditions, according to The Washington Post article.

"I had to wear Pampers. I and many, many others had to wear Pampers," one worker told Oxfam.

Oxfam reached out to the companies, but only got a response from Tyson Foods and Perdue. Though Tyson Foods acknowledged the possibility that there were slip-ups happening under their watch, Perude denied of any such practice.

Gary Mickelson, the senior director of public relations for Tyson Foods, expressed consternation in a follow up e-mail about the report. "We're concerned about these anonymous claims and while we currently have no evidence they're true, are checking to make sure our position on restroom breaks is being followed and our Team Members' needs are being met", quoted The Washington Post.

According to The Washington Post, a 2013 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that nearly 80 per cent of 266 workers surveyed in Alabama said they were not allowed to use the bathroom when they needed to. Another report, published just last month, found that 86 per cent of workers surveyed in Minnesota said they received fewer than two bathroom breaks each week.