Posted on 09/13/2021 4:19:01 AM PDT by EBH
(September of 2020)Last week, and six months into the coronavirus pandemic, the federal worker safety agency issued its first Covid-19-related citations in the meatpacking industry, where the United Food and Commercial Workers estimated that more than 18,000 workers have been exposed to the virus. But the union, which represents meatpacking workers, said the citations issued against a Smithfield plant in South Dakota and a plant owned by JBS Foods in Colorado are a “new low” for the Trump administration.
Together, the fines against the two companies totaled roughly $29,000, despite a combined total of at least 12 worker deaths and almost 1,500 infections due to outbreaks at both plants, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the UFCW. (OSHA’s maximum fine for a “willful” citation is $134,937.)
With the fines, OSHA and the Department of Labor “prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they do not care about holding irresponsible corporations accountable for the lives lost or worker safety,” UFCW President Marc Perrone said in a statement.
Former OSHA officials say the agency could have charged more. “OSHA went VERY VERY easy on Smithfield,” tweeted Dr. David Michaels, head of OSHA during the Obama administration. He said the agency “could have issued numerous citations” one for each of the areas the agency found the company failed to protect workers. He added that “if OSHA asserted they were willful, the penalty could be 10X as high.” (OSHA’s maximum fine for a “willful” citation is $134,937.)
For its part, the Trump administration has declined to issue mandatory safety rules during the pandemic, instead offering optional guidelines, which it maintains are sufficient to shield workers from the coronavirus. “OSHA has meatpacking industry guidance and other resources to assist in worker protection,” said OSHA Denver Area Director Amanda Kupper in a statement in the citation issued to JBS Foods.
But federal OSHA officials recently admitted during proceedings in a lawsuit filed by workers at a Maid-Rite Specialty Foods plant in Pennsylvania that the guidelines require nothing of factory managers. Although OSHA inspectors witnessed employees working “2 to 3 feet” apart without physical barriers — which goes against the Centers for Disease Control’s advice and OSHA’s safety recommendations — the agency concluded there was no “imminent danger” at the plant that needed to be immediately addressed by the company. OSHA said that its work isn’t done at the Maid-Rite Specialty plant and that it has six months to issue a citation.
Because OSHA hasn’t issued Covid-19-specific safety regulations, as Democrats and unions have called for, the agency could only cite Smithfield and JBS under a provision in the 1970 statute that created OSHA called the “general duty clause.” The provision requires businesses to maintain “a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm” to employees.
OSHA has rarely used the general duty clause in enforcement — in part because it’s a cumbersome legal tool that requires review from the higher ranks at the agency, which can take time. The provision also has a four-part legal test that makes it vulnerable to court challenge. Both Smithfield and JBS have 15 business days to contest the citations.
Clash over government role in worker safety intensifies as businesses reopen
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/18/clash-over-government-role-in-worker-safety-intensifies-as-businesses-reopen-265888
By REBECCA RAINEY
05/18/2020 06:18 PM EDT
Democrats and unions are trying to compel the Trump administration to aggressively police workplace safety as businesses from auto plants to retail stores begin reopening across the country.
The AFL-CIO, which represents more than 12 million workers, on Monday asked a federal court to force the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue mandatory workplace safety rules, which the agency so far has refused to do. And House Democrats on Friday passed a coronavirus aid package that would require the agency to issue emergency safety requirements for employers.
The moves come amid a standoff that’s been brewing for weeks over who’s accountable if workers get sick on the job. Business groups say the economic downturn won’t end until places of work can reopen, and that can’t happen if employers are getting sued over exposure to the highly contagious virus. That message is gaining traction with congressional Republicans, who are pushing for liability protections for employers whose workers fall ill. And OSHA says new rules aren’t needed.
“Because of the enforcement authorities already available to it and the fluid nature of this health crisis, OSHA does not believe that a new regulation, or standard, is appropriate at this time,” an OSHA spokesperson said....
...But David Michaels, who was OSHA chief during the Obama administration, said last week at a member briefing for the House Education and Labor Committee, “OSHA is essentially sitting back and saying, ‘We can’t do anything.’ It’s really appalling to me.”
Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia maintains his department can enforce worker safety under a provision in the 1970 statute that created OSHA called the “general duty clause,” which requires businesses to maintain “a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”
excerpt
This is a shot across the bow to private industry from the Federal Government. The timing is not accidental.
This happened last year, but you can see from that how long this OHSA “mandate” has been gestating in the back of their tiny fascist minds.
No facts in the article that explains the clear nexus between the working conditions that caused the virus to kill 12 people.
Nor are their any facts in the article about what the company did in response that ended the virus deaths.
That seems like it would be very relevant to know given today’s proposed take-the-jab-or-lose-your-job givernment regulation. In other words, if purportedly workplace-caused viral deaths were eliminated in the workplace without having to mandate vaxxes, without having to discuss its unconstitutionality - seems like Xiden’s proposal is excessive given that empirical data exists to show it is not necessary.
Correct!
I think it is important to realize that back in May 2020, OSHA didn’t see a need for ‘new rules or mandates’ either, by their own admission.
BUT, look at who the players are in demanding more ‘rules.’
Unions and Fascistcrats.
perhaps the UFCW dude needs to be reminded of the interviews on record with meat packing employees where they admitted to coming to work sick because the pay was more important than their coworkers.
I’ll bet it wasn’t working conditions at the plant to blame.
If the workers were illegals, they were likely crammed together in off-site housing, transported crammed together by company leased or owned vehicles.
The workers also likely socialized together outside work.
But you can bet Deep State does NOT want to go THERE.
I’ll wager something else: These companies will NOT fight these citations because Deep State will threaten to have ICE raid their plants if they do.
Court Won’t Step in For OSHA in Pandemic-Plagued Meat Packing Plant
Thursday, April 8, 2021
On March 30, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania dismissed the complaint a group of meat packing plant workers filed last summer against then Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The complaint sought to force the secretary of labor to take action to address allegedly “imminently dangerous” working conditions in which half of the plant’s employees contracted COVID-19.
The plaintiffs, represented by Justice at Work Pennsylvania, Public Justice and Toward Justice, filed a first-of-its-kind claim directly against OSHA and the secretary of labor. In their complaint, the plaintiffs petitioned the court under Section 13(d) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to issue an order, known as a writ of mandamus, compelling the secretary of labor to take legal action against their employer, Maid-Rite Specialty Foods. Specifically, the plaintiffs asked the court to step in and require the labor secretary to begin enforcement proceedings against their employer to abate workplace dangers including inadequate workspace for social distancing, failing to provide PPE or handwashing opportunities, and failing to inform workers of potential exposures.
The plaintiffs alleged that as early as March 2020 they had raised multiple safety concerns to both their employer and OSHA. While another worker filed an OSHA complaint that was dismissed after the employer’s response, the plaintiffs filed a separate “Imminent Danger Complaint” with OSHA, requesting an immediate inspection as provided under 29 U.S.C. §657(f)(1). In their complaint, the plaintiffs alleged that no such inspection was conducted, that OSHA provided little information in response to their multiple communications, and that OSHA’s assistant area director improperly told the plaintiffs’ counsel that the matter would not be treated as an imminent danger complaint.
Months after the lawsuit was filed, the defendants reported to the court that OSHA had concluded its investigation and would not be issuing a citation to the employer. The defendants provided the court with OSHA’s closing letters referring the plaintiffs to OSHA’s internal review process for any further concerns, and urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit as moot. The plaintiffs responded by pointing to OSHA’s COVID-19 guidance, updated Jan. 29, 2021, as warranting a court order for a new inspection rather than dismissal.
Although the court expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs’ apparent lack of remedy where an OSHA investigator declines to find imminent danger or the investigation takes too long, the court found that Section 13(d) of the act only affords employees a remedy “in those instances where the Secretary has been presented with a finding of imminent danger by an OSHA inspector and has arbitrarily and capriciously rejected the recommendation to take legal action.” In this case, there was no inspector’s finding of imminent danger for the secretary of labor to reject. For this reason, the court found that it lacked jurisdiction to issue a writ of mandamus compelling the labor secretary to take legal action against the employer.
That said, the court stated that it “…has serious concerns about whether OSHA is in fact fulfilling its duty to ensure workers’ right to ‘safe and healthy working conditions’… particularly given the nature of the work Plaintiffs are employed to do, which involves the processing and packaging of raw meat for schools, universities, nursing homes, and military bases.” Even so, the court observed that the plaintiffs’ recourse lies in legislation, not the courts.
In response to an executive order from the Biden administration, OSHA announced on March 21 a 12-month National Emphasis Program (NEP) for COVID-19 workplace inspections. Meat packing plants and a broad list of identified industries now are more likely to experience on-site inspections and enforcement activities. Employers should be prepared to determine if they are subject to the NEP, and to enhance their COVID-19 safety protocols.
the real problem here is the employer is the one on the hook
mandate vaccines and someone dies from the shot...liable
don’t mandate vaccines/testing OSHA fines based on the new Biden orders
I thought the same about the workers being illegals and their living conditions as a factor. In other words, there should be a showing that but for the working conditions, the workers would not have otherwise contracted the virus and died.
The company of course will just pay the fines - it would be more expensive to litigate given the price of the fines. But their business decision does not mean that the workplace conditions actually caused the virus.
Thanks for this added information. Part of the remedies being sought did not include mandatory vaccinations for the workers. There is probably a reason.
That was a feature, not a bug...
The meat packing plants are responsible for replacing American workers with low wage immigrants, many illegal, and for the living conditions that wage entails.
So are the deep state, and the media, and all open borders multiculturalists.
I keep telling people that OSHA is like a flea on a dog’s butt to business. The fine for Smithfield is probably their paper clip budget for the year. OSHA does not like to go to court usually. They want to fine you low enough that you’ll pay it instead of fighting it. And the comment:
“OSHA has rarely used the general duty clause in enforcement”
That’s BS. I’ve been cited under the general duty clause before. It’s not unusual.
Perhaps also a part of the implementation of the vegetarian agenda of the Great Reset?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.