A Mississippi poultry plant's disregard for safety policies was directly responsible for the death of a 16-year-old boy who was fatally injured in July after being dragged into a machine there, the Health and Safety Administration said Monday. Occupational security.
Mar-Jac Poultry, which operates the Mississippi plant, was cited with 17 violations after investigators found that the plant's failure to follow safety protocols had led to the teen's fatal injuries, OSHA said in a statement on Tuesday, noting that he had proposed fining the poultry company more than $200,000.
The 16-year-old was cleaning a machine in the deboning area of the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on July 14 of last year, when he became caught in the machine's rotating shaft and was dragged toward it, OSHA said.
Although OSHA did not release the name of the victim, the teenager was previously identified by the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, a nonprofit organization that supports migrants in Mississippi, as Duvan Tomás Pérez, who immigrated to the United States. United from Guatemala six years ago. seven years ago.
OSHA said federal investigators found that, although a supervisor was in the area before and during the fatal episode, power to the machine had not been disconnected and that the plant had not used a device to prevent the machine from being accidentally turned on. during cleaning.
Minors cannot clean meat processing machines, like the one in which the teenager died, because federal regulators consider the work too dangerous, according to the Department of Labor.
Kurt Petermeyer, Atlanta-based OSHA administrator, said in a statement Tuesday that “Mar-Jac Poultry is aware of how dangerous the machinery it uses can be when safety standards are not in place to prevent serious injury and death.”
“The company's inaction has directly led to this terrible tragedy, which has left so many people mourning the avoidable death of this child,” Petermeyer said.
Mar-Jac Poultry did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The company has 15 business days to comply with the proposed citations and fines, request to meet with OSHA officials or challenge the investigation's findings.
OSHA said the 16-year-old was hired to work at the facility by Onin Staffing, an Alabama-based company that did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The citations came amid an ongoing investigation into child labor by the Department of Labor at Mar-Jac Poultry and follow an episode at one of the same plants in 2021, when a worker died after his shirt sleeve be trapped and dragged into a machine, according to OSHA. .
“Just two years later, nothing has changed and the company continues to treat employee safety as an afterthought, putting its workers at risk,” Petermeyer said. “No worker should be put in a preventable dangerous situation, least of all a child.”
Mar-Jac Poultry, based in Gainesville, Georgia, has plants in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. The company raises live birds to produce chicken that is sold throughout the country.
