Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1505064.015 - Monterey Mushrooms, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Fremont District Office

Investigation Summary

An employee worked at a mushroom farm died due to COVID-19. His job duties included handpicking mushrooms in a Harvesting Room where they are processed in a packing department for shipment. Growing and Harvesting Rooms are located throughout the farm and are categorized as Harvesting Levels 300, 400, 500, 600 and 800. Employees working in the room are categorized as Pickers, General Laborers and a Supervisor. For Harvester Level 800, where the employee worked as a Picker, the group was consisted of approximately 40 workers with about 30 workers working at any one time in the Harvesting Rooms. Harvesting Level 800 workers work on a paid per hour basis. The employer also hires temporary employees through temporary agencies, but the employee was a permanent employee. On November 30, 2020, and December 3, 2020, the employee and a coworker from the packing department were hospitalized due to COVID-19. On November 30, 2020, the employer also reported that there were seven coworkers working in the same department with the employee that tested positive for COVID-19. On November 19, 2020, the employee began to experience COVID-19 related symptoms at work. Employees were not screened even though they had household members exhibiting COVID-19 related symptoms. The employee was allowed to work on a day that a family member was waiting for test results. On November 19, 2020, the employee's son tested positive for COVID-19. The employee went for a COVID-19 test on November 20, 2020, and received a positive test result back on November 21, 2020. On November 25, 2020, the employee was admitted in the hospital. The employee was hospitalized for about a week and was discharged on December 1, 2020 but later died on December 24, 2020. The employer did not have an effective COVID-19 Prevention Program in place.

Keywords: Infectious Disease