Tyson, facing lawsuits over pandemic-related deaths, spent $540 million on COVID-19 in fiscal 2020 – By By Tonya Garcia (Marketwatch) / Nov 21 2020
Tyson Foods Inc. TSN, -2.56% says COVID-19-related expenses in fiscal 2020 reached $540 million, with the meat producer spending $200 million in the fiscal fourth quarter alone.
Expenses included costs associated with worker health, downtime at facilities, personal protection equipment and production facility sanitizing. The company said in its fourth-quarter earnings release this week that the total doesn’t include indirect costs, like raw materials and pricing discounts, that were also involved in managing the pandemic.
Nonetheless, the company is facing wrongful death lawsuits tied to the company’s handling of the coronavirus, and new allegations that a manager at the company’s Waterloo facility “organized a cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager on how many employees would test positive for COVID-19.”
“We are extremely upset about the accusations involving some of the leadership at our Waterloo plant,” said Tyson Chief Executive Dean Banks in a statement posted on the company website.
