By Hailey Konnath

Law360 (September 10, 2020, 6:16 PM EDT) -- California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health has slapped frozen food manufacturer Overhill Farms Inc. with more than $200,000 in proposed penalties for exposing hundreds of employees to COVID-19, according to a Wednesday announcement.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor hit Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp.'s Sioux Falls, South Dakota, facility with about $13,500 in proposed penalties after almost 1,300 workers contracted the coronavirus. Four of those employees died, the agency said.

The companies are the latest in a growing list of employers, many in the agriculture and food manufacturing industries, cited as state and federal regulators crack down on protections for employees amid the pandemic.

At two Overhill Farms plants in Vernon, California, the company and its temporary staffing agency, Jobsource North America Inc., took no steps to install barriers between workers or implement social distancing procedures, according to the Cal/OSHA announcement. The employers also failed to investigate more than 20 cases of COVID-19, and one worker died as a result of the virus, the agency said.

Overhill Farms was hit with $222,075 in proposed penalties while Jobsource got $214,080, per the agency.

Cal/OSHA chief Doug Parker said in a statement that it "is critical that employers evaluate the workplace and take proactive measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace."

"If a COVID-19 illness occurs, employers must investigate the case to determine if additional protective measures should be taken and report the serious illnesses and deaths to Cal/OSHA," he said. "Employers should also notify workers of possible exposure and report outbreaks to county public health officials."

Cal/OSHA began inspections regarding Overhill Farms and Jobsource in April following complaints, according to the agency. Cal/OSHA said it discovered that employees were exposed at various locations throughout their workdays, including where they clock in and out of their shifts, at the cart where they put on gloves and coats, in the break room, on the conveyor line, and during packing operations.

Specifically, 330 Overhill Farms employees and 60 Jobsource employees were exposed at the larger of the two plants, Cal/OSHA said.

"The employers did not adequately communicate the COVID-19 hazards to their workforce, and Overhill did not report a COVID-19 fatality to Cal/OSHA," the agency said.

Both employers were also fined an additional roughly $133,000 combined after one worker at each of the two facilities was injured when their hands got caught in unguarded conveyor parts, Cal/OSHA said.

In a statement provided to Law360 on Thursday, Jobsource said it has not done "anything that would endanger anyone in our community."

"Jobsource has taken, and continues to take, steps to prevent the spread of COVID in keeping with all of the recommendations made by the CDC and the California Department of Public Health," the company said. "We intend to dispute these recent citations that have been issued by Cal/OSHA involving just a small portion of the vendors, clients, associates and employees that make up our Jobsource family."

An Overhill Farms spokesperson said in a statement issued Friday that the company strongly disagrees with Cal/OSHA's "erroneous allegations and major factual deficiencies."

The company has indeed installed plexiglass dividers and reports its COVID-19 cases weekly, according to the statement.

"The claims of this single agency do not in any way reflect the input that we have received from the Vernon Health Department and the other agencies with COVID-19 jurisdiction who we work with," the spokesperson said. "Overhill Farms has not only taken steps in line with the constantly evolving federal, state, and local guidance, we have gone above and beyond those recommendations as we developed our employee safety procedures."

At the South Dakota plant, Smithfield Packaged Meats was cited for one violation of the general duty clause for "failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that can cause death or serious harm," the DOL's OSHA said. The agency didn't specify how exactly the large number of employees contracted COVID-19.

OSHA Sioux Falls Area Director Sheila Stanley said a statement that employers "must quickly implement appropriate measures to protect their workers' safety and health."

She added, "Employers must meet their obligations and take the necessary actions to prevent the spread of coronavirus at their worksite."

Keira Lombardo, executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance at Smithfield, said in a statement that the OSHA citation "is wholly without merit and we plan to contest it."

OSHA's investigation spanned many months and involved reviewing more than 20,000 documents and conducting 60 interviews, according to the statement. After all that, OSHA issued only a singular citation under its catchall "general duty clause" for conditions that existed before OSHA issued its guidelines for the meatpacking industry in late April, Lombardo said.

She added, "More than anything, the outcome of OSHA's comprehensive, full court press investigation of our Sioux Falls ... facility validates the aggressive and comprehensive manner in which we have protected the health and safety of our employees amid the pandemic."

Last week, Cal/OSHA doled out citations to 11 Golden State employers for not adequately protecting employees from COVID-19 exposure. Among those hit with penalties were Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation in the Bay Area and a Grocery Outlet Bargain Market in Santa Clara.

The other companies cited were involved in agriculture, food processing and meatpacking, according to the agency.

--Editing by Daniel King.

Update: This story has been updated to include comment from Jobsource, Smithfield and Overhill.

For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.