Before getting sick, Sanchez, 78, left the house only to paint on the production line, where the corpses of farm animals are cut into pieces of meat, and to move to his church with his five-person congregation, said his daughter, Betty. Rangel, who said no one else had become angry in the family circle or in the Missionary Bible Church, who simply cannot be contacted to comment.
JBS, the world’s largest meat packer, rejected the claim for reimbursement from family staff, as well as those filed through the families of two other Greeley employees who died of COVID-19, lawyers said at the rate of the three claims. Three other Greeley staff members who died also sought reimbursement, a union official said, but Reuters may simply not have the prestige of their claims.
JBS said employee COVID-19 infections were work-related by ignoring accusations, based on the company’s responses to employees, which were reviewed through Reuters.
As more and more Americans return to work, the joy of JBS workers shows the difficulty of linking infections to employment and obtaining reimbursement for medical care and lost wages.
“That’s the fundamental question: how can you solve it?” said Nick Fogel, a lawyer specializing in workers’ payments at Burg Simpson in Colorado.
The meat packaging industry has suffered severe outbreaks of coronavirus, in part because production chain personnel look face-to-face for long periods of time. After the outbreaks, it led Preaspectnt Donald Trump in April to order factories to remain open to supply meat to the country. The White House declined to comment on the industry’s rejection of staff claims. .
Tyson also denied staff reimbursement claims arising from a primary epidemic in Iowa, staff attorneys told Reuters. Smithfield staff at a plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, also affected by a primary outbreak, have not filed any complaints, a union official said, as a component because the company paid the wages and medical expenses of inflamed personnel.
Smithfield declined to comment on workers’ compensation. Tyson stated that he reviewed the shows on a case-by-case basis, but declined to reveal how often he turned them down. JBS stated that it had rejected the shows but declined to say how often. law, elaborating.
Workers can challenge commercial refusals through an administrative procedure that varies by state, but resembles a court hearing. However, the burden of proof rests with the employee to prove that a claim was wrongly denied.
The full picture of how the meat packaging industry has controlled COVID-like reimbursement remains unclear due to a lack of knowledge of national claims. Reuters has asked seven states where JBS or its subsidiaries have plants that have had coronavirus outbreaks. provided detailed knowledge; all show a trend of rejections.
In Minnesota, where JBS had a primary outbreak, meat packaging workers filed 930 COVID-19-related worker reimbursement claims as of September 11, according to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, none were accepted, 717 rejected, and 213 under review The firm identified employers.
The Minnesota Department of Health said two meat packing plants there had primary coronavirus shoots: a JBS red meat processing plant in Worthington and a poultry plant in Cold Spring through Pilgrim’s Pride Corp, which is owned primarily by JBS.
Tom Atkinson, a Minnesota staff reimbursement attorney who has represented meat packaging staff, estimates that up to 100 COVID-19 claims were filed through Worthington plant staff.
In Utah, seven JBSs filed COVID-19 claims by August 1 and all were rejected, according to the State Labor Commission. At least 385 at a JBS beef plant in Hyrum, Utah, tested positive for COVID-19.
In Colorado, 69% of coVID-19’s 2,294 worker reimbursement claims were rejected on September 12 and use the same procedures to review programs nationwide.
JBS spokesman Cameron Bruett did not answer the question of whether JBS painters were inflamed with the paintings and refused to comment on the painters’ individual claims, and stated that the company subcontracted reviews of the claims to an external director.
“Given the widespread nature of viral spread, our third-party claims manager reviews the case very well and independently,” Bruett said.
The administrator, Sedgwick, responded to a request for comment. Truett, also a spokesperson for Pilgrim’s Pride, answered questions about infections and claims at his Minnesota plant.
At the JBS plant in Greeley, where Sanchez worked before he died, at least 291 employees of about 6,000 were infected, according to state data. The company, in its written reaction to the family’s complaint, stated that its infection “doesn’t work. “related, “without specifying his reasoning. Both sides are now discussing the factor in Colorado’s staff payment system.
Under Colorado law, workers’ compensation provides approximately two-thirds of the deceased worker’s salary to the surviving wife and will pay medical expenses not covered by insurance. If JBS had not rejected the Sanchez family’s claim, he would have provided his widow with a solid source of unsyged paid medical income and expenses totaling about $10,000, according to his daughter.
“They don’t care,” Rangel said of JBS, “they all have big profits and they’re not going to give money. “
The Unified Food and Trade Workers Union (TUAC), which represents 250,000 meat packers and food processors in the US. The U. S. , he said last week that at least 122 meat packers had died from COVID-19 and that more than 18,000 had lost paints because they were potentially exposed inflamed.
The U. S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) said on September 11 that it had cited JBS for not serving Greeley plant staff because of the virus. OSHA cited Smithfield this month for not providing staff at its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where the firm said nearly 1300 employees had contracted coronavirus and four had died.
Smithfield and JBS stated that subpoenas had no merit because they were similar to plant situations before OSHA issued COVID-19 rules for the industry. OSHA stated that it adhered to subpoenas.
Worker reimbursement is sometimes the only way to cover medical expenses and wages lost to work-related injuries and deaths. The formula protects employers from lawsuits, with a few exceptions, and allows staff to make a profit without having to commit guilt or negligence. the formula was designed for factory accidents, not airborne diseases.
In reaction to the coronavirus, governors and legislators in at least 14 states have made it less difficult for some workers to collect reimbursement from COVID-19 workers by imposing the burden on companies and insurers to result in an infection not occurring at work. But most of the changes, which vary across the state, apply only to emergency or fitness workers. A similar proposal was not obtained in Colorado.
Mark Dopp, a general suggestive at the North American Meat Institute, an industry agreement representing meat processors, said it was complicated where staff contract infections given extensive sanitation efforts by meat processing plants and the daily movement of staff to and from factories.
Tyson closed its red meat processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, in April due to an outbreak of COVID-19. Ben Roth, a local worker reimbursement attorney, said five families of deceased workers had filed a workers’ claim for death benefits, and all had been rejected.
He said meat processors were encouraged to reject each and every claim because admitting that they had even caused an infection can disclose to corporations the duty of all staff in contracting COVID-19.
“It undermines the argument they need to make at all levels: that it can’t turn out they gave it to them here and not in a grocery store,” Roth said.
Tyson said so under state worker reimbursement laws. The company noted that Iowa law states that an illness with an equivalent likelihood of contracting outside the office “is not compensation as an occupational disease. “
In Colorado, Sylvia Martinez runs an organization called Latinos Unidos de Greeley and said she knew more than 20 JBS employees who had requested staff reimbursement and were denied. Many factory employees speak English and have sought their organization’s recommendation, he said: He added that many perceive their rights and care about being fired. The company’s refusals have discouraged more claims, Martinez said.
“If you reject five or ten, you’ll tell your colleagues,” he says.
JBS also challenged Alfredo Hernandez’s 55-year-old claim, a caregiver who worked at the Greeley plant for 31 years, was inflamed and hospitalized in March, still dependent on additional oxygen and has not returned to work, his wife, Rosario Hernandez, said.
In general, corporations approve claims if it turns out that a worker was most likely injured or has health problems at work, said Erika Alverson, an attorney representing Hernandez, but JBS, she said, argues that staff can having contracted COVID-19. anywhere.
“They came in, where did our clients go, what were they doing that time, who was coming to their house, what did his wife do, was there some other form of exposure?”said Alverson of the Alverson and O’Brien company in Denver.
Judgment will be given on Hernandez’s case at an administrative hearing. Meanwhile, Hernandez’s family circle only has his disability benefits, a component of his salary, to cover his medical and insurance expenses, Rosario Hernandez said.
“We get a lot of bills,” he says.
Was this item valuable?
Thank you! Tell us what we can do with this article.
Thank you!% Of other people found this article interesting. Tell us what you liked.
Get the latest news right in your inbox.
Notify me of comments by email
We have updated our privacy policy to be clearer and meet the new GDPR needs. If you continue to use our site, you will be content with our revised privacy policy.