Posted on 10/07/2020 8:40:25 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Whistleblowers: JBS’ COVID-19 screening process encouraged employees to work while sick, discouraged accurate screening
JBS disputes claim
By CUYLER MEADE
October 6, 2020
Two women who were hired through a contractor by the JBS beef plant in Greeley to help screen employees of the plant for COVID-19 allege the company did not take screening protocols seriously.
Among the allegations are statements that screening equipment provided did not function properly, that COVID-19 tests were provided at a charge to the employees, and that visibly sick employees were encouraged to explain away their symptoms and continue to work, among other damning accusations.
Sarah-Jean Buck, a licensed medical assistant who was hired through a temporary employment agency to conduct COVID-19 screenings outside the JBS plant beginning May 10, has alleged in a signed affidavit that, at the height of the JBS COVID-19 outbreak this spring and summer, the plant was essentially negligent about its handling of the virus in the plant.
Buck in her affidavit states she began working at the plant May 10 through a temp contract with a company called Medix. She was not an employee of JBS. She quit the job “after about two months,” when, she said, she was told she should have cleared an employee for work — whom Buck had sent home — despite having been visibly sick and coughing and having been sent home before.
Buck’s supervisors, she said in her affidavit, told her Buck should have cleared this woman for work, even if the woman had declined a COVID-19 test because she could not afford the $100 cost.
“JBS would try to convince people they were fine to go to work,” Buck stated in her affidavit. “For example, if someone came through screening and reported having a cough, Cecilia (Borrego, a supervisor running JBS’ health office) would ask if they slept with the window open. If the employee said yes, then Cecilia would say that was causing the cough and they were fine to go to work.”
The company has disputed the claims, pointing to its numbers over the past several months.
“Despite unsubstantiated claims from a disgruntled temporary employee, our screening process has been reviewed and approved multiple times by local, state and federal entities, including the CDC,” wrote Nikki Richardson, corporate communications for JBS USA in an email. “We conduct random, routine surveillance testing of asymptomatic team members to ensure our preventive measures remain effective. In the last month, the Greeley beef facility has tested nearly 400 team members, with one positive case.”
However another temporary worker, Erica Villegas, echoed many of the sentiments expressed by Buck.
In her own separate signed affidavit, Villegas said she was hired through Medix as well to work at the JBS plant from “around May to June.” Villegas is a clinical professional working toward becoming a registered dietician.
Villegas, who currently works as a COVID-19 intervention disease specialist with Larimer County Public Health per her affidavit, said that communication with employees was discouraged and that nothing was done by the company to ensure non-English speakers were accommodated.
“There was one woman who told me she did not understand,” Villegas stated in her affidavit. “I asked her if anyone at her home could help but she said no. Cecelia (spelled differently in this affidavit but apparently the same person who runs the JBS health office) was nearby so I asked her and she said, ‘No, because if we do it for one, we have to do it for all.’ The employee was told to go home, and asked if she was going to get paid for the day. Cecelia said only if you get a positive test result.”
Villegas said she was told she was let go from the JBS position because, “JBS alleged I was causing unnecessary drama with employees and not communicating properly to management. It was the exact opposite — JBS management appeared to have little or no idea as to what they were supposed to do — and took very little time to instruct us or tell us what was going on.”
Buck and Villegas both said in their sworn statements they received next to no training, and that the company was uninterested in providing guidance on questions to ask the employees they were screening, much less language translation for those who didn’t speak English. Villegas is bilingual, she said, speaking both English and Spanish, and would use that capacity to interview Spanish-speaking employees. However, she was one of the only bilingual screeners, and nobody spoke Somali, for example, or any of the other many languages in the plant, nor was signage or other material provided in those languages.
“I was not given a training manual or list or instructions,” Buck said. “I was not instructed to ask anything.”
Buck said it was on her own that she began asking employees if they had a cough, fever, chills or shortness of breath, though she was only able to communicate with English-speaking employees in this manner.
Additionally, the screening tools were apparently quite obviously non-functioning.
Buck provided cell phone photos to the Greeley Tribune of a screen she said showed temperature readings for employees as they walked through the screening tent. The readings range from 84.7 degrees Fahrenheit to 102.5 degrees, with only one of the ten readings she photographed registering anywhere near a typical healthy body temperature in the high 90s.
“The temperature gun did not work,” Buck said. “It would provide only the same few temperatures over and over again. Sometimes, it would register the exact same temperature for many people in a row, which is not realistic or accurate. I would say to Donald (Shrine, the head of safety at JBS) something to the effect of ‘This is not working, it is reading the same temperature for the past ten people,’ and he would respond something to the effect of, ‘Oh you’re on a streak, it’s fine.’ And I would say no, we are not all the exact same temperature. The issue with the temperature guns was consistent throughout the time I worked as a screener.”
Buck said during her final week working at JBS, the gun wasn’t even displaying all the digits because she had personally accidentally broken it. She was told to carry on.
“I dropped it on the ground,” Buck said. “It had lines on the screen but (would) not show you the full number. For example, you might see .3 but you wouldn’t know if the temperature was 100.3 or 97.3 JBS would not replace it because Cecilia thought it was sufficient that you could kind of see the temperature reading. But it was broken — I know it was broken because I broke it.”
Even when concerningly — or impossibly — high numbers came in, they were ignored, Buck said.
“It would often read temperatures around 107 degrees, probably because it would be very hot under the tarp by that time of day,” Buck said. “If I was out there alone, I would try to retest anyone who tested high but JBS would tell me to let them through. They would say something like, it is just really hot out here, or it must be their black hat.”
As the pandemic progressed, the testing got laxer, Buck said.
“For about a week, we used the temperature gun on every tenth employee who came through screening,” Buck said. “Then for another week or so, we did not use the gun at all, then we were instructed to use the temperature guy for every 50 employees who passed through. All of the employees went through the thermal temperature scanner.”
Buck said security personnel were not tested.
“People working security at the plant do not get screened,” she said in her affidavit. “During the time I worked at the plant, two security personnel came to work sick for a few days. Someone tried to get them to go home, but they would not. By the nature of their work, security touches other people’s things — for example, opening bags and combing through the contents inside — but they are not screened. I raised this after one girl said she had been working sick for a couple of days — she was coughing and reported it was difficult to breathe.”
But security personnel aren’t JBS employees, like Villegas and Buck, they worked for a third-party company contracted with JBS.
“I was not sure the proper protocol was when she was sick at work,” Buck said. “I told Cecilia that security needed to be screened just like the JBS employees. Nothing changed.”
Notably, whether social distancing procedures were practiced as the company maintains they were inside the plant, they were alleged not to be practiced in the screening tent.
“There was no social distancing waiting to enter or in the tarp,” Buck said. “I would try to ask employees to stand six feet apart, but I think many did not understand what I was saying.”
Villegas said the same.
“Spacing was a huge problem,” Villegas said in her affidavit. “It depends on the time of day because there are certain times where there would be a lot of people coming or going and then there would be no social distancing either before or in the tent.”
Despite claims by many including JBS that there would be testing provided to employees who exhibited symptoms, Buck said they were told after some time that employees would have to pay for the tests themselves, if insurance didn’t cover it. It was $100 cash. That drastically diminished the amount of tests performed, she said.
“JBS put it on us to explain to employees the tests would not be paid any longer,” Buck said. “These are employees who are saying they do not feel well — and then they changed their mind once they hear they need to pay, saying some excuse like it is just my sinuses acting up.”
Both Buck and Villegas came away with the impression that the entire screening process was largely for show.
“JBS did the minimum it could to keep their doors open,” Villegas said. “I did not get the impression JBS was interested in having a thorough or reliable screening program. It was all a show.”
Buck, in a separate statement sent to the Greeley Tribune, doubled down on that point.
“JBS’ actions incentivized workers to lie about symptoms so they would work while sick and get paid,” Buck wrote in an email. “Moreover, JBS encouraged us to not diagnose anyone with the virus so that they could work. During my time there, JBS made a great effort to look like they were following guidance to properly screen and protect employees, but they were not doing that. In fact, their actions not only jeopardized their own employees, but the health of the entire community during the height of the pandemic in Colorado.”
The JBS outbreak claimed six worker lives and climbed to nearly 300 infected employees before it was declared over a little over a week ago. For quite some time, it was the single worst hotspot in the state. The outbreak and its resulting fatalities made national news
JBS officials disputed the claims outright and said positive recent numbers are proof of the company’s dedication to worker safety.
“We have had only two positive cases in the past eight weeks, with more than 1,253 positives in the county during the same time period,” Richardson wrote. “During the months of May and June, we had 13 positive cases while Weld County had 993 cases and Colorado had 16,902 cases. Our protocols and interventions, including our screening processes, have limited potential introduction of COVID-19 into our facility despite ongoing community spread. We are hopeful that the low number of cases among our workforce given continued community spread is due in part to the preventive measures we are taking in the facility an the efforts our team members are taking to stay safe when away from work.”
What is “JBS” and what do they do?
It sure ain’t the John Birch Society!
It says in the first sentence.
JBS beef plant
They have a steak in your future...
Because they only do beef, not pork, they are the biggest employer of the large Somali/East African population here.
Meat packing plant
Brazilian- based meat company that bought Swift and Pilgrims Pride
Good article. But where’s the beef?
Meat packing company
Sent back because of social distance violations.
Gotcha. Guess I have no beef with that.
Is there something illegal about this? Is JBS required by law to send people home who have a temp over 98 degrees? Are they required to give a ‘free’ test to every employee with a 100 degree temp reading?
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