JBS DBA SWIFT & COMPANY

According to U.S. Department of Labor enforcement records, JBS DBA SWIFT & COMPANY — a animal (except poultry) slaughtering facility located at 800 NORTH 8TH AVENUE, GREELEY, CO 80631 — was the subject of a formal OSHA inspection that resulted in 24 citation(s) and cumulative proposed penalties of $45,925.00. The inspection case was opened on 2008-11-18.

The volume of citations issued during this inspection suggests systematic compliance deficiencies rather than isolated incidents. Facilities with 10 or more citations typically face comprehensive abatement requirements and may be subject to follow-up inspections.

BLS Injury Data: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2022), this industry sector has an occupational injury rate of 3.3 per 100 full-time workers — 22% above the national average of 2.7. The sector fatality rate is 2.3 per 100,000 workers.

Industry Benchmark: The total penalty of $45,925.00 is more than 5.4× the national average of $8,527.19 for facilities in the Manufacturing sector (NAICS 311611). This sector encompasses 24,420 inspected facilities nationwide with aggregate penalties totaling $208.2M.

State Context: Within CO, this facility's penalty places it at the 99th percentile among 32,935 inspected facilities. The statewide average penalty is $3,271.13.

Citation Analysis: The inspection produced 24 citations spanning 8 distinct OSHA regulatory standards. The citation breakdown includes: 3 other-than-serious — The violation has a direct relationship to job safety and health but is unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm. 12 serious — A workplace hazard that could cause death or serious physical harm exists, and the employer knew or should have known about the condition.

Enforcement Timeline: Citations were issued beginning May 14, 2009 with the latest abatement deadline set for August 3, 2010. Of the 24 total citations, 10 (42%) have been marked as abated in DOL records, which may indicate ongoing compliance gaps requiring further regulatory attention.

Penalty Assessment: The cumulative penalty of $45,925.00 reflects OSHA's gravity-based penalty calculation methodology, which considers the severity of potential injury, the probability of occurrence, the employer's size, good faith, and violation history. The per-citation average of $1,913.54 falls within the standard penalty range.

The 2008 inspection of the JBS facility in Greeley reveals a deeply concerning pattern of systemic process safety management (PSM) failures within a high-hazard meatpacking environment. The citation of multiple violations under 1910.119—specifically regarding mechanical integrity (J04 and J05) and operating procedures (F01)—indicates a breakdown in the facility’s ability to manage highly hazardous chemicals, likely anhydrous ammonia used in industrial refrigeration. The maximum gravity ratings assigned to the mechanical integrity violations suggest that the employer failed to perform necessary inspections and tests on critical equipment, creating a high-probability risk of catastrophic release. This is not indicative of isolated mechanical failures but rather a programmatic neglect of the PSM framework required to protect workers from toxic exposures or explosions. Beyond chemical hazards, the presence of 1910.212 machine guarding and 1910.23 fall protection violations highlights a fundamental lack of floor-level safety controls in production areas. The aggregate penalty of $45,925, while significant for the era, reflects a heavy concentration of "Serious" violations across disparate domains—electrical, sanitation, and medical services—pointing to a culture where safety oversight was secondary to operational throughput. For a facility of this scale, the breadth of these citations suggests that management failed to implement a cohesive safety management system, instead allowing multiple high-risk physical and chemical hazards to persist simultaneously.