Tyson offers chicken plant workers chances to win $10K as vaccine incentive

Tyson Foods is offering employees at its 50 U.S. chicken plants who have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine the chance to win $10,000 once a week.

A Tyson spokesperson told The Hill Thursday that other parts of the company have also been offering incentives for people to get vaccinated. Additionally, staffers who were either vaccinated away from a Tyson location or outside of work hours have been able to get compensated for up to four hours of pay.

The initiative comes as companies and localities are trying to get crafty with encouraging holdout employees and residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Advocates believe that some people who were hesitant about getting the vaccine may now be able to overcome that hurdle after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fully authorized Pfizer’s earlier this week.

The announcement also follows an investigation that Tyson conducted following a lawsuit that claimed supervisors at a pork-processing facility in Waterloo, Iowa, allegedly placed bets last year regarding how many of its workers would fall ill to the coronavirus.

The lawsuit, which was filed by the family of an employee who worked at the plant, claimed that a facility manager created a “cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19,” according to NPR.

The company issued a statement in December saying that seven employees had been fired following an independent investigation into the allegations.

“We value our people and expect everyone on the team, especially our leaders, to operate with integrity and care in everything we do,” Tyson Foods President and CEO Dean Banks said in a statement. “The behaviors exhibited by these individuals do not represent the Tyson core values, which is why we took immediate and appropriate action to get to the truth. Now that the investigation has concluded, we are taking action based on the findings.”