The U.S. Department of Labor fined Smithfield Foods Inc. over a Covid-19 outbreak that infected nearly 1,300 workers at a South Dakota plant and killed four, alleging that the pork giant failed to protect employees. The action is the federal government’s first Covid-19 related penalty for a meatpacker, the Labor Department said. It comes after the novel coronavirus rapidly spread last spring among workers that power the $213 billion U.S. meat industry, forcing Smithfield and other companies to temporarily close plants and...

Source: Wall Street Journal September 10, 2020 22:20 UTC