A new report from the California Institute for Rural Studies reveals food production employees worked in “life-threatening” conditions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. That includes workers in packing houses, dairies, and fields, as well as those in food processing.
The report looked at data from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health from April 2020 to August 2021, and found food production employers had four times more citations for breaking COVID-19 guidelines than all other sectors combined, including non-food manufacturing, retail, health care, skilled nursing and elder care.
“The violations included failure to provide masks, failure to enforce physical distancing, failure to implement illness and injury prevention plans, and failure to alert public health agencies about outbreaks at the workplace,” Dr. Dvera Saxton, a researcher for the California Institute for Rural Studies, said during a press conference Wednesday.
The report also found that food production employers paid significantly less financial penalties for those violations. The average fine as of August 2021 was almost $22,500 and did not increase in accordance with the severity of the violation.
Recommendations from Dr. Saxton and other activists include strengthening COVID-19 protocols, increasing public health inspections within the industry and granting food production workers a professional status for their protection.
This story is part of the Central Valley News Collaborative, which is supported by the Central Valley Community Foundation with technology and training support by Microsoft Corp.
