The owners of a Grainger County slaughterhouse that's been the subject of federal scrutiny for employing undocumented workers now faces fines of more than $41,000 for failing to provide safe working conditions, records show.
State workplace inspections in April 18 and 19 revealed numerous safety violations at Southeastern Provision, TOSHA records dated Aug. 16 state. Inspectors found 23 "serious" violations and four other "Other than serious" violations.
Related: Owner agrees to plead guilty
The total in fines, which individually ranged from $125 to $4,000, adds up to $41,775, documents show.
The plant is located at 1617 Helton Road in Bean Station. Owners include James Brantley.
Last week, Brantley signaled in a plea agreement he was ready to submit to federal charges of tax evasion, wire fraud and employing undocumented immigrants, stemming from an immigration raid April 5.
The plea agreement describes ways Brantley avoided paying nearly $1.3 million in taxes, hired at least 150 undocumented immigrants and withdrew $25 million in cash from the bank to pay them in large weekly amounts from a local bank for several years.
Brantley has a plea hearing Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court in Greeneville.
As a result of the raid, dozens of workers were taken into custody for processing in suspicion of being undocumented. Some have since returned but are awaiting further review by federal immigration authorities.
Other workers who'd been ordered to get out of the country also were arrested and prosecuted in U.S. District Court in Greeneville.
Records list citations
Southeastern Provision has been the subject of several state and federal reviews.
Last spring, just weeks before the federal raid, a sewage system failed on the site, triggering a boil alert for nearby residents.
Following the raid, the state moved in April to examine the plant's condition.
The Department of Labor and Workforce Development issued citations for among other things, failure to put in protective equipment for workers as they cut up cows; failure to provide training for workers "required to apply energy control devices to equipment including...the skinning machine, boning conveyor belts and circular saws"; inadequate facilities to treat a worker's eyes and body if exposed to corrosive materials; and inadequate means of treating an employee if he suffered injury on the job.
Some violations such as failing to develop a noise monitoring program merited $4,000 citations, according to a summary sheet dated Friday.
Southeastern Provision has a month to pay the fines.