The JBS meat packing plant in Green Bay (File Photo)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – JBS was issued a $13,494 fine by OSHA as part of the agency’s COVID-19 response.
The JBS plant on Green Bay’s east side was one of the outbreak hotspots identified by the Brown County Health Dept. The plant was closed for several days in spring.
According to OSHA’s website, the penalty was under the “general duty clause,” which requires employers to provide a workplace free from hazards.
Additional information from OSHA has been requested.
A JBS spokesperson issued this statement on Friday:
“The OSHA citation is entirely without merit. It attempts to impose a standard that did not exist in March as we fought the pandemic with no guidance. When OSHA finally provided guidance in late April, our previously implemented preventive measures largely exceeded any of their recommendations. Every proposed abatement in the citation was implemented months ago in Green Bay. These abatements would have been informative in February. Today, they don’t even meet our internal standards.
Coronavirus remains active in the Green Bay community and our focus is keeping the virus out of our facility. We have implemented hundreds of interventions to protect our workforce, including screening all employees prior to entering the facility, staggering start times and break times to promote physical distancing, requiring the use of masks and face shields, erecting physical barriers, installing UV germicidal air sanitation and plasma bipolar ionization technologies to neutralize potential viruses, and removing vulnerable populations from our facilities with full pay and benefits.
We ordered masks on March 19, before the CDC recommended their use on April 3. Global supplies were low and difficult to procure, but we mandated the use of masks companywide as soon as they were available for our more than 62,000 U.S. team members in early April. We have had our protocols reviewed by third-party experts and epidemiologists, and we now conduct random, routine surveillance testing of asymptomatic team members to ensure our preventive measures remain effective as the pandemic continues.”
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