The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is coming under criticism for failing to take action against employers who violate safe workplace procedures during the coronacrisis.
The Washington Post reports that OSHA has received more than 3,000 complaints from workers in a variety of sectors, including food processing, who feel that they are being made to work in proximity, denied protective gear, or otherwise forced to endure conditions that increase their chances of becoming infected.
The U.S. Labor Department, which oversees OSHA, has declined to institute any sort of mandates to protect workers from coronavirus infection, issuing only voluntary guidelines. USA Today reports that an OSHA official left a voicemail for an attorney representing a deceased worker at a big-box retail store stating, “OSHA does not have any jurisdiction on enforcing anything related to COVID-19 at this time.”
The situation has intensified since food processing workers have started to die from COVID-19. Most of these have been in meat processing plants, including four at JBS and three at Tyson Foods.
A Tyson spokesperson expressed sorrow to USA Today over the losses and said the company is taking measures to protect its workers. Tyson released a photo of employees standing inches apart on a processing line but separated by plastic sheets perpendicular to the line.
But USA Today quoted Deborah Berkowitz, a former OSHA senior policy adviser now with the National Employment Law Project, as saying, referring to meat and poultry plants, “Why would you think they would voluntarily take the right steps for COVID-19 when they don’t really take the right steps for other traditional health and safety hazards?”
