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Temporary employees and Food Safety

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Altermanm

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Posted 14 August 2019 - 04:28 PM

Hello all,

During a busy season we are using temporary employees on the production floor. Some them even work with food contact packaging materials and unsealed food product containers.

All the temporary employees receive a daily training regarding food safety and quality, and they are instructed to report any deviations to their supervisor.

We were thinking to provide the temp employees with a pocket food safety rules card to help them to remember, as they don't work in food  manufacturing every day. 

What are the SQF expectations in regards to the temp employees? do they supposed to know the food safety and quality policy?

 

i would be happy about your practices with the temporary employees.

 

Thank you!



SQFconsultant

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Posted 14 August 2019 - 08:04 PM

There is no difference between a temp employee and a regular employee as far as SQF is concerned.

 

The only time I saw an employee - regular and temps actually look at those cards was when they were being questioned by an SQF Auditor - we call them cheat cards.

 

You need to train or have your temps trained on exactly the same thing as your regular employees and that includes your policy. A statement made by a QA Manager to me once when I was an SQF Auditor was that I should not have asked "that employee" a question -- because "that employee" was a temp... not a good move.


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Altermanm

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Posted 14 August 2019 - 08:18 PM

Hi Glenn,

Thank you for your comment.

I agree that all the employees have to be trained the same way with only difference that the temps come and go. It is quite challenging to ensure that they will remember all the details of the Food Safety requirements if they are working with us a few weeks a year.

 

If they can show where the food safety policy is posted will that be ok?



Kellio

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Posted 14 August 2019 - 08:21 PM

Hello,

 

For SQF Audits, what it had worked for me on the past is to get the Temp Agency Involved and send the Basic GMP Training to them and have the temps sign off on it. Make sure you get a copy of the sign up sheet(Training Check Box done!).  Once in site, have the HR Department and Production Staff Leaders review the GMP's Prior to start the shift.  I created a pocket card the size of a small index card and I put the top 8 - 10 food safety rules in one side and in the other side i put the top 8-10 safety rules (internal communication Check Box Done!). This card will also work for your visitors (Food Defense Requirement Check Box Done!). The Cards can be created with MS Word or MS Publisher or send to a print shop, Very Inexpensive.

 

I hope this helps....


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Altermanm

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Posted 14 August 2019 - 08:25 PM

Hello,

 

For SQF Audits, what it had worked for me on the past is to get the Temp Agency Involved and send the Basic GMP Training to them and have the temps sign off on it. Make sure you get a copy of the sign up sheet(Training Check Box done!).  Once in site, have the HR Department and Production Staff Leaders review the GMP's Prior to start the shift.  I created a pocket card the size of a small index card and I put the top 8 - 10 food safety rules in one side and in the other side i put the top 8-10 safety rules (internal communication Check Box Done!). This card will also work for your visitors (Food Defense Requirement Check Box Done!). The Cards can be created with MS Word or MS Publisher or send to a print shop, Very Inexpensive.

 

I hope this helps....

Hi Kellio,

Thank you for sharing.

Do you find these practices as effective? Have the temporary employees ever been asked any questions by the auditors? if yes, how did that go?

 

Thank you!



QAGB

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Posted 15 August 2019 - 03:10 PM

I think temp workers are a struggle for everyone in the food industry. In order to provide them with the same standards are current employees, we expect a lot of upfront training from them. As a result, they say "nope" and they go find a comparably paying job with less demands. Based on what I saw, for every 10 temps we brought in, we kept maybe 3 for a week, and 1 for the full time of temp employment.

 

Either way, we did basically the same thing as Kellio. We had to make sure that the temp agency provided our general GMPs and safety expectations to the employees. On their first day of employment, they had to attend detailed training and take tests. If they passed, they could stay. If not, we sent them home. 

 

It just wasn't worth it for us to keep people who didn't understand GMPs in our facility. A lot of production issues came about because temps didn't understand what they were supposed to do, so we had to tighten up the process.



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kettlecorn

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Posted 15 August 2019 - 04:40 PM

I agree with QAGB--temp workers are a real struggle. We've had serious problems the are comparable to what others have said, mainly with the question of training and food safety requirements, which either makes temps not want to continue in the company or is a problem because they ignore cGMPs and policies because they feel they won't be here long and therefore don't care much about reprimands. 

 

Recalls are expensive, and in the long term it's worth the extra expense to employ people who are invested and care about food safety and quality. 



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Altermanm

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Posted 15 August 2019 - 04:53 PM

Thank you for your responses.





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