Meatpackers suit against OSHA dismissed
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A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by meat plant workers against the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, claiming the agency failed to protect them from COVID-19.
The workers at Maid-Rite Specialty Foods plant in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, asking for OSHA “to take steps to abate imminent dangers to its employees related to the transmission of COVID-19,” according to documents in Jane Does I, II, III, et al., V. Eugene Scalia, United States Secretary of Labor, filed in the United States District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania in July 2020.
The workers argued in court documents that “OSHA did not sufficiently address whether various conditions and policies were sufficiently remedied and that, in concluding certain conditions were acceptable, OSHA chose to ignore the CDC’s, and its own, guidance — namely, that “COVID-19 pandemic control requires a multipronged application of evidence-based strategies” such as face masks.
Court documents include details on steps the plant took to ensure safety, along with OSHA’s responses.
A federal judge, however, dismissed the lawsuit, stating that an OSHA inspector did not find the workers to be in “imminent danger:” the “Plaintiffs’ Complaint is not properly before this court as no OSHA inspector has found that the Plant presents an imminent danger to its employees and, consequently, no recommendation had been made to the Secretary to take action.”
More insurance and workers compensation news on the coronavirus crisis here.
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