JBS USA, the meatpacking giant headquartered in Greeley, pressures instructors to falsify safety trainings so its employees can get to work on production lines with a history of causing injuries, a whistleblower alleges in a recent lawsuit.
Salima Jandali, a former JBS worker who is Muslim and from Morocco, says in her complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, that JBS engages in “systematic workplace discrimination” based on her religion and retaliated against her after she refused to engage in the company’s “illegal, dangerous and exploitative practices.”
JBS did not respond to requests for comment. In court filings, the company denied engaging in any unlawful conduct and denied demanding Jandali falsify safety records.
From August 2019 until September, Jandali worked as a safety instructor at the Greeley plant, tasked with conducting mandatory safety training for new hires and production employees working with equipment on the meat-processing floor.
The courses — seven hours for current workers and a week for new employees — are meant to teach workers about health and safety protocols, including instruction on blood-borne pathogens, hand washing, knife sharpening and meat-related diseases.
But JBS only holds safety courses in a handful of languages — ignoring the fact that more than 30 dialects are spoken at the plant, Jandali said in an interview and in her lawsuit, filed June 24. As a result, many workers don’t learn anything from these trainings, she said.
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