The California Labor Commissioner’s Office cited Foster Farms and three staffing agencies that provide workers to the company for allegedly failing to inform 3,476 temporary workers of their available COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave.
The staffing agencies cited are Viking Staffing CA, Human Bees, and Marcos Renteria Ag Services. The citations to the three staffing companies carry with them orders to make payments that collectively amount to about $3.8 million. Since Foster Farms is considered “jointly liable” by the commissioner’s office, the company was fined the same amount of the total of the three staffing companies’ payments due.
The commissioner’s office in 2020 opened an investigation into Foster Farms’ poultry processing operation in Livingston, California, after COVID-19 outbreaks were reported at the workplace. That investigation included a payroll record audit, which determined that the temporary staffing agencies named above hired staff to fill in for permanent workers affected by COVID-19 outbreaks at the processing plant, but failed to inform the temporary staff of their rights to supplemental paid sick leave, according to a press release from the California Department of Industrial Relations (CDIR). It was during this investigation that the commissioner’s office found these alleged violations.
According to the press release, Human Bees owes its 1,987 temporary workers $940,050; Viking Staffing owes its 341 temporary workers $377,850; and Marcos Renteria Ag Services owes its 1,148 temporary workers $2,465,900. Foster Farms’ owes a total of $3,783,800..
“Workers should not have to worry about financial hardship if they need to take care of themselves or a family member who is COVID positive,” said California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower. “That’s what supplemental paid sick leave is for – it keeps sick workers at home and protects against the spread of COVID-19.”
“Employers who contract with staffing agencies have a joint responsibility to protect the health of their workers. Employers are obligated to ensure that employees are made aware of sick leave benefits intended to protect workers, their families and the public from the spread of COVID-19.”
The 2022 supplemental paid sick leave law went into effect on February 19, 2022, and was retroactive to January 1, 2022. It provides covered employees up to 80 hours of COVID-19 related paid leave, with up to 40 of those hours for isolation and quarantine, receiving vaccines and caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed, and up to an additional 40 of those hours available only when an employee or family member for whom the employee provides care tests positive for COVID-19.
The companies each have 15 days to contest the citations, according to CDIR.
