A wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former manager who said he was fired because he reported health violations involving undocumented workers at a Dallas meat processing plant has been settled out of court.
Lam Van “Tommy” Nguyen filed the lawsuit in February 2019 in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, arguing that he was wrongly fired from Quality Sausage Co. The case was settled Sept. 18.
Quality Sausage supplies cooked meat to grocery stores and restaurants across the United States.
Nguyen claimed that workers stored meat grinders on the floor, used vinegar to conceal mold on pepperoni and did not properly sanitize vats between uses, according to the lawsuit.
On one occasion, Nguyen stopped production after a metal detector used to screen meat for metal objects was not functioning. His supervisor “became very angry with Nguyen for shutting down production,” according to the complaint.
Nguyen was fired on March 5, 2018, after a Quality Sausage employee said Nguyen asked for help obtaining an unregistered gun. Nguyen denied the allegations and argued he was set up by his supervisor, according to court documents.
Later that month, the Texas Workforce Commission found Nguyen was not fired for misconduct and granted him unemployment. In July of 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor found Nguyen “experienced an adverse employment action” when Quality Sausage fired him. Quality Sausage did not object to either finding, according to court records.
Nguyen had asked for $60,000 for lost wages and mental anguish in addition to his attorney fees. A final court order to dismiss the case is pending.
Quality Sausage said in an emailed statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that it could not comment on the settlement agreement. Nguyen’s attorney, Dustin Fillmore of Fillmore Law Firm in Fort Worth, also declined to comment.
A former production supervisor, Roman Nieves, 68, signed a declaration in support of Nguyen’s case earlier this year stating that the majority of the workers he supervised were in the country illegally and given fake or false names to work at Quality Sausage. He worked there from February 1997 to September 2017.
Nieves said in an interview that he kept his head down for many years and looked the other way because he cared for his workers.
In July of 2016, Nieves was asked to drive a worker to the hospital after the worker cut off a piece of his finger on a meat grinder. Nieves said they couldn’t call 911 because the worker was undocumented and using a stolen identity to work at Quality Sausage.
Instead, he and the worker were instructed to go to the hospital where someone from Archer Services -- a temporary staffing agency that provides employees to the company -- would be waiting to help fill out the paperwork for the undocumented worker, he said.
But when they arrived, there was no one there. The worker, who was about 20 years old, began to panic, Nieves said. Nieves called his supervisor, and told him he would help check the worker into the hospital but only with the worker’s real name.
The supervisor was furious and asked him to wait outside until he arrived, Nieves said. Some time later, the supervisor showed up with the severed piece of finger and took the worker inside, according to Nieves. The supervisor could not be reached for comment.
Quality Sausage said the company transported the worker to the hospital and reported the accident to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration but is not aware of any worker authorization issues with the injured contractor.
OSHA fined Quality Sausage $7,000 and cited the company for failing to establish the procedures or training to ensure the safety of workers using the meat grinder, according to OSHA records obtained by the Star-Telegram.
In April, three Quality Sausage workers died of COVID-19. Two were undocumented and using stolen aliases sold to them by Archer Services, according to family members and former undocumented employees who spoke to the Star-Telegram for a story published in May. An official with Archer Services, which has offices in Irving, refused to comment about its hiring practices.
Quality Sausage issued a statement at the time saying it verifies that its employees are eligible to work at its plant and that it was working with Archer Services to confirm its continued compliance with U.S. work authorization regulations.
Attorneys representing Quality Sausage argued the Star-Telegram’s reporting was “hearsay,” and “offered no factual support,” according to court documents filed in Nguyen’s case.
In May, a judge overseeing the case ordered the company to disclose federal employment authorization forms for the temporary employees who worked at the plant from Nov. 1, 2016, to March 5, 2018, when Nguyen was a supervisor.
Quality Sausage said in an August motion that its staffing agency, Archer Services, had the forms, known as I-9s. In response, Archer Services argued Quality Sausage had them. In a statement, Quality Sausage said that the staffing agency has the forms of temporary employees hired by Archer Services because federal regulations require that the staffing agencies complete and maintain these forms in confidence with very restricted access.
Quality Sausage has been working with Archer Services since June 2008, according to copies of the company’s contracts filed in Nguyen’s case.
In 2011, Quality Sausage was audited by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency reviewed 140 of the company’s I-9s and found 45 technical violations, 17 missing forms and seven mismatched or unregistered alien numbers, according to reports obtained by the Star-Telegram.
Archer Services provided a list of more than 200 of its employees and other documents but no I-9 forms before Nguyen’s case was settled, court documents show.
Two lawsuits filed by the family members of two undocumented workers from Quality Sausage who died of COVID-19 in April are pending in a Dallas County district court. The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating three deaths and four health-related complaints at Quality Sausage.
Kristian Hernandez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TNS)