Mar-Jac Processing Plant in Mississippi Fined After Teen Dies in Deboning Machine Accident

Mar-Jac Poultry Processors are not commenting on an incident at their Hattiesburg, MS plant where last summer a 16-year-old teenager was killed when he was pulled into a chicken deboning machine.

It happened on July 14, 2023 while the teen was cleaning and sanitizing the deboning machine.

He became caught in a rotating shaft and was pulled into the machine, according to the OSHA report. OSHA said the accident could have been avoided had the Supervisor of the machine made sure it was turned off before the teen began cleaning it.

OSHA released a statement this week blaming Mar-Jac Poultry’s ineffective safety policies for the teen’s death.

It is illegal for minors to work in any hazardous occupation, including meat processing, according to the Federal Code of Regulations and the Fair Labor Standards Act state it is illegal for a minor to work in any hazardous occupation including meat processing.

OSHA has cited Mar-Jac’s Mississippi processing plant for 17 violations and proposed $212,646 in fines.

Mar-Jac is based in Gainesville, GA and in a statement earlier this week, an unidentified company official in Gainesville told the Hattiesburg American newspaper quote, “”Due to an ongoing investigation, we have no comment at this time.

While OSHA did not name the victim, the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, a nonprofit supporting migrants, previously identified the teenager as Duvan Tomas Pérez of Hattiesburg, according to The New York Times.

Pérez immigrated to the US from Guatemala about six or seven years ago, the organization said.

He was employed at the Mississippi plant via a contract staffing agency, according to a Department of Labor report.

The government’s probe into the incident said the plant failed to employ a device that would keep the machine from turning on during cleaning.

The teenager, who was employed as a contract worker by  Onin Staffing, LLC,  was the second worker killed at the Hattiesburg facility in a little over two years.

In 2021 OSHA cited the Mississippi plant for unsafe working conditions after an adult employee died when his shirt became caught in a machine.

OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer said in a Tuesday statement, that following the fatal incident in May 2021 Mar-Jac Poultry should have enforced strict safety standards in its facility.

Petermeyer said it’s been two years and nothing has changed.

He added Mar-Jac continues to treat employee safety as an afterthought, putting its workers at risk.

Mar-Jac Poultry has 15 days to comply with the proposed fines or contest the findings.