Butterball has been issued a citation from the United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), alleging the company failed to report the death of an employee at its turkey processing plant in Carthage, Missiouri, within eight hours, as required by law.
OSHA announced Butterball’s citation, along with 16 others it issued to other companies, in a news release on its website.
The release said Butterball was found in violation of Standard 1904.39(a)(1), which according to OSHA, states: “Within eight (8) hours after the death of any employee as a result of a work-related incident, you must report the fatality to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Department of Labor.”
The agency did not offer further details on the incident, other than the alleged violation took place between December 18 and December 24.
OSHA, in its release, said all 17 companies cited were related to COVID-19.
The citation issued to Butterball carries with it an initial penalty of $9,639, but the company will be given the opportunity to contest the fine.
A Butterball spokesperson issued the following statement concerning the citation: "We are aware of the citation from OSHA and are in the process of reviewing, but can provide no further comment at this time. Since the onset of the pandemic, we put in place special processes and procedures at all of our plants to slow the spread of the virus, including temperature taking, Butterball-provided masks, increased sanitation, physical barriers on production lines, and reconfigured workspaces for social distancing. Butterball is an industry leader in workplace safety and we take the health and well-being of all of our team members seriously. We will continue to aggressively pursue initiatives that best protect our teams while they are at work."
The citation comes about one month after Butterball announced that it would ramp down production at the Carthage plant. Long-term adverse conditions in the commodities market, where Butterball has routinely sold excess protein produced at the facility, resulted in the need to ramp down certain production processes at this location, the company stated. This ramp-down in specific manufacturing operations at the Carthage facility will take place over the course of several months, beginning no sooner than March 1, 2021. That reduction in production will impact a limited number of turkey growers in the Midwest, Butterball stated.
Butterball, as of the conclusion of 2019, is the largest turkey company in the United States. According to the WATTPoultry.com Top Companies Database, Butterball slaughtered about 1.3 billion pounds of live turkeys in 2019.
The company operates turkey processing plants in North Carolina, Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri. It is headquartered in Garner, North Carolina.
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