Some meatpacking workers say company attendance policies have forced them to go to work when they have covid-19 symptoms or risk being fired. That's noteworthy since meatpacking plants are a major source of coronavirus spread in rural counties, Heather Schlitz reports as part of a collaboration betweeen the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and USA Today, supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Most major meatpackers use a point system in which workers receive a point or points for missing work. After a certain number of points, they get fired. "For a few months earlier this year, as case counts swelled, Tyson Foods suspended its point system, and Smithfield Foods said it has halted its version for the time being," Schlitz reports. "However, the point system has endured at Tyson and JBS plants throughout the pandemic, and it has continued to coerce people with potential covid-19 symptoms into showing up to work, said plant employees, their family members, activists and researchers."
As one worker told Schlitz: "If they see that you can walk, they’ll tell you to keep working . . . If you can’t stand on your own, they’ll send you home."
Spokespeople for Tyson and JBS, the nation's two largest meatpackers, told Schlitz that they encourage employees to stay home while sick. A JBS spokesperson said the company has never taken points from a worker for a documented illness during the pandemic.
However a worker may display symptoms long receiving a confirmed coronavirus diagnosis. And the point system has likely contributed to the virus's spread, according to Jose Oliva, co-founder of HEAL Food Alliance, a non-profit that organizes food industry workers, Schlitz reports.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/34m5JIL Meatpacking workers say company policies force them to work when they have covid-19 symptoms - Entrepreneur Generations
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