Reversal in Decision for Pork Plant Workers Denied Workers’ Comp

Several employees at the Quality Pork Processors plant in Austin, Minn., who were initially denied workers’ compensation for a mysterious neurological illness will be paid after all, attorneys said.

At least 18 workers have suffered symptoms of the illness, which was first made public by health officials in December.

Attorneys Paul Dahlberg, who represents several of the workers along with Tom Patterson, said Patterson was notified over the weekend by a representative of Quality Pork’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier. Dahlberg said they represent some 10 clients.

Dahlberg said his clients had not yet sued, and he declined to name them.

A Quality Pork employee who had filed a lawsuit, Susan Kruse, was told that her workers’ comp claim would be honored, attorney Ray Peterson said.

“They rolled over on Susan’s case, at least at this point, and are accepting all liability for her,” Peterson said.

Dahlberg said it was great news for his clients.

“That helps with their short-term financial problems considerably — the wage loss and unpaid bills and things of that nature,” Dahlberg said. He didn’t have precise figures.

Quality Pork’s workers’ comp insurance carrier is American Home Assurance Company, a unit of American International Group Inc. AIG spokesman Joe Norton said the company is “voluntarily paying all lost wage and medical benefits that we can clearly document are related” to the condition. He said he didn’t know how many claims were involved and said he couldn’t comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.

Kelly Wadding, owner and president of Quality Pork, and other company officials did not return phone calls seeking comment. Wadding’s voice mail said he was out of the country on vacation.

All of the affected employees worked at or near a station at the plant called the “head table,” where workers used compressed air to blow brains out of pig skulls.

Investigators from the Mayo Clinic and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at a neurology conference in Chicago that their working hypothesis is that some of the brain tissue was turned into a fine mist during the process, the workers became exposed to it and somehow developed an autoimmune response that caused nerve damage. They call the condition progressive inflammatory neuropathy, or PIN, but said they don’t fully understand it yet.

Kruse said she began experiencing symptoms, including tingling and pain in her legs, in November or December of 2006, and hasn’t been able to work since Feb. 19, 2007.

“There’s no way I can work an eight-hour shift,” she said. She said she can’t stand on her feet that long, even at home. She said she is getting intravenous drug treatments every other week.

Peterson said Kruse’s workers’ comp claim will be paid retroactive to when she had to stop working, and that the payments could continue indefinitely if she remains unable to work. Under Minnesota law, workers’ comp covers medical expenses and two-thirds of lost wages. Peterson said it doesn’t cover full wages because the payments are tax exempt.