Advertisement Workers still get paid at sausage plant destroyed by fire Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Seven months after a fire destroyed a Johnsonville Sausage plant in Watertown, employees are still getting paid and the community is enjoying a burst of volunteerism.The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the company is paying full wages and benefits to 120 affected employees while it spends $10 million to renovate a new building. Johnsonville plans to hire an extra 30 workers when the new facility opens this spring.Workers are drawing their full salaries as long as they do volunteer work, take training classes or work in other Johnsonville facilities. They've put in 7,000 hours of volunteer work so far.Johnsonville CEO Nick Meriggioli says it's the right thing to do for the employees, and in the long term it's the right thing to do for the business.