Food Processing and Packing Plant Workers

Hands and wrists. Carpal tunnel, tendinitis, trigger finger, and De Quervain’s. Know the rating rules in advance:

• Loss of grip strength is expressly excluded from a compression neuropathy rating — the most intuitive complaint is written out of it.
• Normal electrodiagnostic testing does not permit a diagnosis for rating purposes, so a worker with real symptoms and clean studies rates zero under the strict method.
• De Quervain’s and trigger finger have no diagnosis-based value at all and rate zero if motion returns.

None of that affects your right to medical treatment or to wage replacement while you are off work. Those are separate entitlements. The full explanation.

Shoulders, from sustained work at or above shoulder height on a line. Shoulder injuries.

Backs, from lifting, boxing, and palletizing. Low back injuries.

Knees, from standing on concrete for ten hours. Knee injuries.

And the date of injuryDate of injury For a cumulative or occupational disease claim, the law sets it as when you first suffered disability and knew or should have known it was work-related — not when the wear began. Almost every deadline runs off this. is not when it started. It is when you first suffered disability and knew or should have known it was work-related. “It’s been building for years” describes a cumulative traumaCT — Cumulative trauma Injury from repeated exposure over time. The largest injury category in California and the least claimed. claim; it does not make it late. How they work.

Blades and machinery — saws, grinders, slicers, augers, and conveyors. Amputations are on the § 4656(c)(3) list: 240 compensable weeks of temporary disabilityTD / TTD / TPD Temporary Disability, Total or Partial. Wage replacement while recovering. Two-thirds of average weekly earnings; 2026 maximum $1,764.11/week. instead of 104, and the extra 136 weeks alone are worth up to about $240,000 at 2026 rates. And a machine injury is frequently also a products case against the manufacturer, which pays for pain and suffering when comp does not. Amputation. · Third-party claims.

Ammonia. Industrial refrigeration systems use anhydrous ammonia, and a release causes severe respiratory and eye injury. Reactive airways dysfunction syndrome — persistent asthma-like disease after a single intense irritant exposure — is a recognized outcome, and it defeats the “you can’t get asthma from one incident” argument. And chemical burns to the eyes are separately on the § 4656(c)(3) list. Chemical exposure. · Eye injuries.

Cold. Prolonged cold exposure aggravates every one of the repetitive strain conditions above and is an independent risk factor.

Falls on wet, greasy floors.

Noise. Hearing loss.

And heat, in cook, bake, and sterilization areas — now covered by 8 CCR § 3396 since July 23, 2024. Heat illness.

Where the employer knew a line speed or a station was injuring people and did nothing — a prior Cal/OSHA citation, an ergonomic assessment that was ignored, a pattern of identical injuries at the same station, a complaint on record — the law increases compensation by one-half, and the law forbids insuring against it. The employer pays it personally.

Twelve-month deadline from the injury. How.

Food processing is heavily staffed through labor contractors, and the law makes the client employer share liability where the agency failed to secure coverage. Report the injury to both, in writing, the same day. How that works.

The law presumes employee status, cash payment does not remove you from the system, and immigration status does not affect eligibility.