Former employee speaks out after Missouri Prime Beef Packers closes plant

PLEASANT HOPE, Mo. (KY3) – Hundreds of people lost their jobs after a plant closed in Pleasant Hope. Missouri Prime Beef Packers announced the closure last week. Now, some are voicing concerns about severance pay.

Daniel McCarty, a former employee, says it started with a reduction in hours. Then, it became a plant closing. Now, he’s worried they won’t pay out the years’ worth of PTO or paid time off he and others had been saving up.

“Our guts are all tore up,” said McCarty.

McCarty had worked at the Missouri Prime Beef Plant for three years. He ran the box shop, where he oversaw the packing of boxes. He didn’t have plans to leave.

“I was proud of my job,” McCarty said. You know, I liked it. And there’s a lot of people there, not just me. I’m not speaking for myself; I’m speaking for all the people that plant. They liked the job. They’re dependent on it. It meant something to their families. And they had two or three members of their family working there. Now here they are. They got to go find other jobs.”

He says he’s had to start part-time work at a fast-food chain to make ends meet. Employees were given a packet when they were told that they’d be fired. In it, the owner says employees will receive their standard pay until the doors close on April 26th. But McCarty says he and others had a lot of PTO time saved up and he fears he’ll lose those hours.

“I don’t think they’re gonna pay us our PTO, or so we got coming to us,” McCarty said. “I, myself. I’ve got like 42 hours. I know some people there’s got 60 hours, probably even more, that’s a lot of money. There’s no reason we believe that they’re gonna honor anything, but they weren’t truthful to us, and lead us astray. So I figure they’re just gonna keep doing that.”

McCarty says after devoting years of his life to a career he enjoyed he feels like he and the other employees deserved a straight up approach to the news.

“It does make you just trustful,” said McCarty. “It does it hurts you. Like I said, there are people out there got mortgages and everything. And they’re just, they’re in a bad way.”

We reached out to the plant for comment, at this point they have not responded to our calls or emails. We’ve also asked the corporate owner for comment. We’ll let you know if we hear back.

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