Hiring of Quality Assurance Personnel
"My questions is: Do we have any problems during audits if we have temporary hires for our quality assurance activities?"
In my opinion, not necessarily, provided they are trained and can demonstrate competency in the tasks they are assigned. If your temporaries are in a position in which they must make decisions or judgment calls, then I would be much more hesitant to utilize temporaries in general (speaking only for the USA, there are temporaries out there with QA experience, therefore they may be the exception). Then there's regulations and standards to which one must adhere: As an example, and maybe the only example SQF practitioner cannot be a temporary).
Dear Chebar,
Does your facility depends on seasonal raw material so you have temporary hires for QA at peak season?
IMO, QA has an important role to keep your products safe and comply with the regulation/standard. It would be questionable how far we can rely on them to do inspecting job especially at critical steps (eg. metal detector). It's not about skill only but also integrity, responsibility and sense of belonging. Personally, i would say no for temporary hires at QA dept.
Hi RMAV,
Thanks for your reply. With regards to these QA activities, our temporaries are the ones who inspect the equipment or vessels before operating and during repairs. They are the ones who gave the so-called "professional judgment" in releasing these equipment or vessels for operations based on our checklists (cleaning, repair, loose tools, loose parts)
We had to train over and over again a new set of QA every time their contract expires.
Regards,
Chebar
Hi Chebar!
That is the usual practice in our country. This should not pose a problem during audits if you can prove that 1) they are properly trained and 2) someone in your department (a senior officer, not a contractual) is closely supervising them.
Cheers!
The standard is very clear in 6.2.1 "the food safety team and the other personnel carrying out activities having an impact on food safety shall be competent and shall have appropriate education, training, skills and experience."
"Where the assistance of external expert is required for development, implementation operation or assessment of the food safety management system, records of agreements or contracts defining the responsibility and authority of external experts shall be available"
You need to avail the competence and contracts showing responsibility and authority. also ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities as outlined in the job descriptions.
Thanks
Hi guys, We are getting labor for our quality assurance activities using temporary hires but with the advent of so many food safety regulations we might get into some "trouble" in the future. My questions is: Do we have any problems during audits if we have temporary hires for our quality assurance activities? (product inspections, metal detection & rejection monitoring, cleaning inspections and on/off loading of raw materials and products inspections) Your comments is highly appreciated. Thank you. Chebar
Not if they have received training and assessment to demonstrate competency. These also sound like critical activities that require a level of supervision.
The standard is very clear in 6.2.1 "the food safety team and the other personnel carrying out activities having an impact on food safety shall be competent and shall have appropriate education, training, skills and experience."
You are quoting an ISO 22000 requirement, having said that it is one that should be generally applied.
Regards,
Tony