As more than 10,000 employees in meat-processing plants have fallen ill with the coronavirus and a minimum of 30 have died, corporate food giants dealing with liability suits are turning to a powerful ally: the White House.
On April 30, two days after President Donald Trump ordered meatpacking centers to stay open in the middle of the pandemic, a legal representative defending Smithfield Foods told a judge that the business anticipated federal regulators to come to its defense.
The country’s largest pork processor had been accused of failing to protect employees at its Milan, Missouri, plant. At a preliminary hearing in Kansas City, Missouri, Smithfield attorney Alexandra Cunningham stated the Department of Labor would offer “support to companies” and “been available in and discuss” the business’s compliance with federal standards.
” They’re not suggesting in any way that … private litigants can walk around the country and try to impose their requirements,” she stated, according to a court records. “I feel quite positive we could get a declaration from [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration stating] that’s not the case if the Court is inclined to translate it that way.”
The statement raised red flags for legal professionals who translated it to mean “the Department of Labor is more thinking about developing ways to safeguard companies than to secure employees,” stated Adam Pulver, a lawyer at the consumer watchdog Public Resident.
” The Department of Labor has a duty to the workers who are putting their health and wellness at risk every day,” Pulver, a previous senior attorney at the Labor Department under President Barack Obama, informed HuffPost this week. “To the extent that the Department of Labor is collaborating with meatpacking plants, it ought to be open and transparent about all of those conversations.”
The Labor Department did not respond to an ask for remark. a week after a judge dismissed the case, on the premises that Smithfield had actually resolved its federal security standards considering that the claim was submitted, a leading Senate Republican politician assistant informed Bloomberg Law that protecting companies from liability in employee fits was Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia’s “bailiwick.”
Deputy Labor Secretary Pat Pizzella stopped short of validating outright that Scalia was working straight with lawmakers to craft legislation that would safeguard employers from virus-related claims.
” All I can say is this concern is one that he is rather familiar with provided his background, so it’s not unusual that individuals are seeking his input, however I don’t wish to go into any information,” Pizzella stated.
The Trump administration’s offer of help to meatpacking business comes as the president presses federal and state officials to abandon lockdown procedures that scientists state are saving 10s of countless lives, and to reopen services in a quote to revive the economy ahead of November’s election. Just today, the U.S. Department of Farming admired the restart of meat pr