Dozens of Boars Head workers scrubbing plant infected by listeria as company has no plans to reopen it

Boar’s Head has tapped dozens of workers for a deep clean of the Virginia plant whose listeria outbreak has led to multiple customer deaths — but the company has no plans to reopen it, The Post has learned.The giant cold cuts distributor said last week it is closing the Jarratt, Va.facility “indefinitely” and said it has offered its 500 employees severance packages.

In an email to The Post this week, a Boar’s Head spokesperson said, “We do not currently have any plans to reopen this plant.”That’s despite the fact that Boar’s Head plans to retain some 85 maintenance and sanitation workers at the 170,000-square-foot facility for several more months, according to Jonathan Williams, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400.The Jarratt plant stopped packaging meats and cheeses in late July when the listeria outbreak – which has killed 9 people and hospitalized at least 57 – came to light.But most employees continued to work there through Sept.

13 to clean the facility, Williams said.While the skeleton crew of 85 is slated to work at the plant at least through the end of the year, others have been offered jobs at a Boar’s Head plant 30 minutes away in Petersburg, Va.and given commuter stipends, according to Williams.

Still others were paid to take food safety and manufacturing classes to earn professional certifications, he said.Food safety attorney Bill Marler, who is representing some of the victims in the Boar’s Head listeria outbreak, said he’s skeptical the Jarratt plant will ever reopen.“Once you have listeria in a facility it’s really hard to eradicate and the inspection reports we’ve seen showed the condition of the plant as a perfect place for listeria to grow,” Marler told The Post.As for Boar’s Head, “I have serious doubts that they are cleaning it to reopen it,” given the “9 or more deaths,” Marler added. One likely reason is that listeria is stubbornly hard to get rid of once it is esta...