Agribusiness  December 16, 2014

Labor Department sues Greeley’s JBS USA

GREELEY – JBS USA systematically discriminated against qualified applicants seeking entry-level jobs at its beef-processing plant in Hyrum, Utah, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor against the Greeley-based meatpacker.

JBS discriminated against female, Caucasian, African-American and Native American applicants, according to the lawsuit filed last Tuesday with the Labor Department’s Office of Administrative Laws Judges. The lawsuit followed an investigation by the Labor Department that also found JBS failed to perform in-depth analyses of its employment processes to determine any barriers to equal employment opportunity.

JBS is supposed to conduct such analyses as part of the company’s federal contracts. From 2005 to 2009, JBS and the company it bought in 2007, Swift and Co., have received $140 million in federal contracts as providers of meat, poultry and seafood to agencies such as the departments of Defense and Agriculture. Federal contractors are barred from discriminating against job applicants on the basis of sex, race or national origin.

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Authorities found that JBS unfairly discriminated against women who applied for jobs as laborers in 2005 and 2006. Investigators also found that the company discriminated against Caucasians, African-Americans and Native Americans who applied for those positions in 2008 and 2009.

“JBS Chairman Wesley Batista proudly notes that the company his father started in Brazil nearly half a century ago is a leader in quality and a leader in service,” said Patricia Shiu, director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, in a statement. “However, to do business with the U.S. government, you must be a leader in equal opportunity, too.”

“OFCCP will use every tool available to us, including canceling a company’s federal contracts if necessary, to ensure workers are treated fairly,” she added.

JBS USA is a subsidiary of Brazilian meatpacker JBS S.A. Cameron Bruett, head of sustainability for JBS, said the company could not comment because it had not been served with the lawsuit.

JBS faces two other lawsuits filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that allege the company discriminated against employees.

Both lawsuits, filed in Colorado and Nebraska federal courts, contend that JBS violated the Civil Rights Act by engaging in a pattern or practice of religious discrimination when the company failed to accommodate prayer breaks for Muslim employees.

The lawsuits also allege that JBS Swift retaliated against the employees by firing them after they requested that their evening break be moved so that they could break their fast and pray at sundown during the month of Ramadan, which requires a daytime fast from sunup to sundown. Both lawsuits say that supervisors and co-workers called Somalis offensive names.

GREELEY – JBS USA systematically discriminated against qualified applicants seeking entry-level jobs at its beef-processing plant in Hyrum, Utah, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor against the Greeley-based meatpacker.

JBS discriminated against female, Caucasian, African-American and Native American applicants, according to the lawsuit filed last Tuesday with the Labor Department’s Office of Administrative Laws Judges. The lawsuit followed an investigation by the Labor Department that also found JBS failed to perform in-depth analyses of its employment processes to determine any barriers to equal employment opportunity.

JBS is supposed to conduct such analyses as part of the company’s…

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