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.