Smithfield and JBS face federal fines for failing to protect slaughterhouse workers from pandemic

"The U.S. Labor Department has cited Smithfield Foods and JBS for failing to protect employees from the coronavirus, making them the first two major meatpackers to face a federal fine after outbreaks at slaughterhouses infected thousands of workers," Tom Polansek and P.J. Huffstutter report for Reuters. The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed fining Smithfield $13,494 and JBS $15,615."

Specifically, Smithfield's plant in Sioux Falls was cited for "failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that can cause death or serious harm," OSHA's complaint said. At least 1,294 plant workers were sickened and four died from the coronavirus this spring, Polansek and Huffstutter report.

OSHA cited JBS's plant in Greeley, Colorado, where six workers have died from the virus and 290 have tested positive. According to the complaint, employees were unable to remain socially distant at work. JBS has already been fined twice for coronavirus-related safety violations at Minnesota plants: $28,000 for four violations a Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plant in Cold Spring, and another $29,400 for five violations at a pork plant in Worthington, Polansek and Huffstutter reports.

Both companies said the citations were undeserved. They have until about the end of the month to respond and put safety measures in place, Polansek and Huffstutter report. The citations "did little to quiet complaints from labor unions and safety advocates, who said the Trump administration needs to do more to protect workers critical to the nation's food supply," they report. David Michaels, a George Washington University environmental and occupational health professor, who was the assistant labor for OSHA in the Obama administration, said the fines are "not even a slap on the wrist."