June 4, 2020 — The family of a beef processing worker who died of COVID-19 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against JBS.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Enock B., a 70 year-old man who worked at the JBS beef plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania.
According to the lawsuit, JBS put profits over safety by failing to provide workers with masks and other protective equipment during an outbreak of COVID-19 at the plant.
JBS is also accused of “deliberately” not telling employees when their co-workers became infected with COVID-19, while adding an extra day of work to boost production and meet consumer demand for beef.
“JBS treated workers as expendable and placed them standing shoulder to shoulder without basic protective equipment such as masks.”
Enock died one day after JBS finally began giving masks and other PPE to workers at the plant, according to the lawsuit.
Meatpacking plants have been particularly hard-hit by the COVID-19 outbreak. At another JBS meatpacking plant in Colorado, at least 8 workers died of COVID-19 and at least 366 others tested positive.
JBS, the largest meat processing company in the world, is owned by two billionaire brothers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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