The Sugar Vibes Donut Company has recently brought to light an issue they faced during the COVID pandemic.
OSHA received complaints back in 2021 of employees not wearing masks. Shortly after these complaints, Sugar Vibes Donut Company received a fine of $8,900. According to Janice Jackola, the owner, after this fine came in, they tried to appeal it.
“We tried appealing, I sent in a video from a virologist that talked about the air quality and things that go on inside a hospital,” Jackola said. “That didn’t matter.”
According to Jackola, most of these fines for other businesses went to out-of-state collections. Hers went to the Department of Revenue. She inquired about doing a payment plan, but the Department of Revenue requested financials to be submitted. She did not submit these financials under the assumption that the Department of Revenue already knew her financials.
After calling OSHA, they learned this fine started at $700. Then, OSHA calculated the risk times employees. Their final number, according to the Department of Revenue, was $8,900 in debt, $2,215.68 in penalties and an interest payment of $74.62, totalling $11,190.30. According to Jackola, this was all due to unmasking.
Other safety precautions were taken to prevent the spread of COVID.
“We did everything,” she said.
Jackola highlighted that in her own observations there was never any regard for potential issues with the masks. According to her, unidentified employees struggled with the mask due to previous domestic violence situations, or even underlying health conditions such as asthma.
“These are experiences from employees that traumatized them by having that on,” she said.
Then the Sugar Vibes account was garnished for a total of $11,190.30 on April 11, 2024.
“That’s a big hit for a small business,” Jackola said. “What I would like people to know is that it didn’t go away. This is what they did.”
Along with this, payroll went out at the same time, causing their account to be very low. Jackola had community support though. Many community members came together to help in the struggling times according to her.
In an article published by the Register Guard, Oregon employers still owed $867,000 worth of fines for COVID-19 violations. Jackola concluded on how she felt this was government overreach.
“I feel like we have already fought for these things, we have our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, what the flag is supposed to represent, you know, our military is protecting us, all the people that have served and been injured and killed for our freedoms,” Jackola said. “And that just didn’t feel very free. It feels like a very financial violation of your own private business.”
