Tyson Foods Managers Accused of Holding ‘Winner-Take-All’ Bet on How Many Employees Would Catch the Coronavirus

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Company managers for Tyson Foods are facing a wrongful death lawsuit that claims they took bets on how many of their employees would end up catching the coronavirus.

The lawsuit was filed by Oscar Fernandez, son of Isidro Fernandez who worked at Tyson’s meat processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa before dying in April of Covid-related complications. Washington Post reports that over 1,000 other plant workers ended up contracting the virus before it was eventually closed down.

Local officials blasted Tyson earlier in the year for failing to protect their employees as Fernandez and 5 others died from Covid. Fernandez’s son moved to sue the company for downplaying the virus, forcing employees to work in unsafe conditions, and other actions amounting to “fraudulent misrepresentations, gross negligence and incorrigible, willful and wanton disregard for worker safety.”

According to CBS Des Moines affiliate KCCI-TV, Fernandez amended his lawsuit against Tyson this month to include the charge that Plant Manager Tom Hart “organized a cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19.” This comes after the suit claimed Manager John Casey “explicitly directed supervisors to ignore symptoms of COVID-19,” compelled them to show up for work despite any symptoms, and that he once “intercepted a sick supervisor en-route to get tested and ordered the supervisor to get back to work, adding, ‘We all have symptoms. You have a job to do.'”

Tyson offered this response to KCCI when reached for comment:

We’re saddened by the loss of any Tyson team member and sympathize with their families. Our top priority is the health and safety of our workers and we’ve implemented a host of protective measures at Waterloo and our other facilities that meet or exceed CDC and OSHA guidance for preventing Covid-19.