"This farm clearly understood the steps they were required to take to keep workers safe," L&I Director Joel Sacks said Monday. However, "Gebbers made it very apparent to investigators they had no intention of following the rules as written regarding temporary agricultural worker housing and transportation."
The post acknowledges "the scores of people who have died during this pandemic." Two of them — a 37-year-old from Mexico and a 63-year-old from Jamaica — worked at the farm itself.According to the state, that's how the investigation began.
"Gebbers continually failed to comply, even after the first worker died and our repeated presence at the farm, clearly demonstrating a lack of regard for worker safety and health," Anne Soiza, assistant director at the state's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said Monday. "COVID-19 is a known workplace hazard, and we expect businesses in Washington state to follow the requirements," Church told Business Insider. "They did not. That's the short of it."