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Washington Farm Fined $2M for Virus Rule Violations December 28, 2020
An investigation into the COVID-19 deaths of two workers at a Central Washington farm has reportedly found dozens of safety and health violations.
As a result, the Washington state Department of Labor & Industries has cited Gebbers Farm Operations, LP in Brewster and issued one of the largest workplace safety and health fines in state history: $2,038,200.
“This farm clearly understood the steps they were required to take to keep workers safe and prevent the spread of the coronavirus,” said L&I Director Joel Sacks. “Gebbers made it very apparent to investigators they had no intention of following the rules as written regarding temporary agricultural worker housing and transportation”.
Farm company fined $2M after two workers die of COVID-19
Associated Press
An agricultural company in Washington state where two workers died from COVID-19 was fined more than $2 million for repeatedly violating coronavirus virus safety procedures.
“It’s unacceptable to choose to ignore health and safety rules,” Joel Sacks, the director of state Department of Labor & Industries, told reporters Monday.
Labor & Industries launched an investigation in July after being contacted by an employee of Gebbers Farm Operations in Brewster, Washington. The employee said a worker had died of coronavirus, and that the migrant workers who shared a cabin with the deceased were not tested and then split into other cabins.
In a statement Gebbers Farms said it disagreed with the findings by the state workerplace watchdog.
“There is nothing more important to Gebbers Farms than our workers’ health and safety, as evidenced by the fact that 99.3% of our entire workforce tested negative for the virus, which is better than county, state and national rates to date,” the company said.
Gebbers Farms said it worked with an infectious disease specialist early in the pandemic to develop a safe housing program that included social distancing, mandatory masks and using fans to improve airflow.
Investigators found that hundreds of workers were sleeping in bunk beds using both the top and bottom bunks and not being told to remain in “cohort groups” of workers who don’t mingle with other employees.
State hands out historically large fines after two WA farm workers die from COVID
(Photo by Tim Matsui/Liaison)
The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries doled out one of the largest total fines related to worker safety in the state’s history this week, following the death of two Central Washington farm workers.
Two employees of Gebbers Farm Operations died after contracting COVID-19, having reportedly caught the virus in a work environment that L&I said had intentionally flouted safety rules.
“Gebbers made it very apparent to investigators they had no intention of following the rules as written regarding temporary agricultural worker housing and transportation,” L&I Director Joel Sacks said in a news release.