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A lawsuit filed this week by a deceased Tyson employee's son claims managers at the business had bet money on how many employees would test positive for COVID-19. The company responded to the accusations Thursday, saying the employees allegedly involved have been suspended without pay and the company has hired a legal team to conduct an investigation.Isidro Fernandez was an employee at Tyson Foods' Waterloo facility. He died from COVID-19 complications on April 26. The lawsuit claims "fraudulent misrepresentations, gross negligence and incorrigible, willful and wanton disregard for worker safety." The defendants include Tyson Foods, Chairman John Tyson, CEO Noel White, President Dean Banks, President Stephen Stouffer, Vice President Tom Brower, Manager Tom Hart, Safety Lead Bret Tapken, and Managers Cody Brustkern and John Casey. Court records show that Sheriff Thompson advised the company to shut down the Tyson plant in Waterloo, but they didn't. Thompson said that the working conditions "shook him to the core" at the Waterloo facility, according to the documents. "Around this time, defendant Tom Hart, the plant manager of the Waterloo facility, organized a cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19," the lawsuit stated. On April 12, officials said about two dozen employees were admitted into the local emergency room. That week they temporarily closed the facility. "Defendant John Casey explicitly directed supervisors to ignore symptoms of COVID-19. Mr. Casey told supervisors had to show up to work, even if they were exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, and he directed supervisors to make their direct reports come to work, even if those direct reports were showing symptoms of COVID-19," the lawsuit stated. "On one occasion, Mr. Casey intercepted a sick supervisor en-route to get tested and ordered the supervisor to get back to work, adding, 'We all have symptoms. You have a job to do.'" Court documents state that high level executives at Tyson were lobbying White House officials for protection from COVID-19 mitigation efforts. It goes on to claim the executives "successfully lobbied, or directed others to lobby, Gov. Reynolds to issue an executive order stating that only state government, not local governments, had the authority to close businesses in northeast Iowa, including Tyson's Waterloo facility." Multiple times the lawsuit references that the defendants were pressuring employees to continue working and the facility had to remain open so "Americans don't go hungry."Tyson sent ����vlog the following statement Wednesday: "We’re saddened by the loss of any Tyson team member and sympathize with their families. Our top priority is the health and safety of our workers and we’ve implemented a host of protective measures at Waterloo and our other facilities that meet or exceed CDC and OSHA guidance for preventing COVID-19. While we’ll pass on specifically addressing the amended lawsuit, we can tell you the following:Our company formed a coronavirus task force in January and began educating our team members – in multiple languages – about the virus. Our efforts included relaxing our attendance policy and telling team members to stay home if they didn’t feel well.We were one of the first companies to start taking team member temperatures and we began efforts to secure a supply of face masks before the CDC recommended using them.We’ve transformed our facilities with protective measures including symptom screenings, face masks, workstation dividers and social distance monitors.For weeks, the Black Hawk County Health Department (BHCHD) declined to share information with our company about Tyson team members with COVID-19. The first time BHCHD officials finally provided us with a list of names was the day after they and other local officials asked us to suspend plant operations. Once we started receiving the case information, we made the decision to idle production and work with state and local health officials to conduct facility-wide testing.As noted in a May 5 news release, the reopening followed a tour of the plant by Black Hawk County health officials, Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart, Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson, UFCW Local 431 President Bob Waters and other local business leaders and a subsequent joint company and community leader review of the company’s protocol to safely resume operations"Tyson officials released the following statement Thursday:“We are extremely upset about the accusations involving some of the leadership at our Waterloo plant. Tyson Foods is a family company with 139,000 team members and these allegations do not represent who we are, or our Core Values and Team Behaviors. We expect every team member at Tyson Foods to operate with the utmost integrity and care in everything we do. We have suspended, without pay, the individuals allegedly involved and have retained the law firm Covington & Burling LLP to conduct an independent investigation led by former Attorney General Eric Holder. If these claims are confirmed, we’ll take all measures necessary to root out and remove this disturbing behavior from our company. Our top priority is and remains the health and safety of our team members. We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars to transform our U.S. facilities, including the Waterloo plant, with protective measures, from walk-through temperature scanners and workstation dividers to social distance monitors and always-on testing.”