Mississippi poultry plant reaches settlement with OSHA after teenager's death in 2023

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi poultry processing plant has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor. The settlement requires the company to pay a $164,814 fine and implement enhanced safety measures following the death of a 16-year-old boy at the plant.

The settlement, announced in a press release on Friday, follows an investigation of Mar-Jac Poultry by the ministry's Occupational Safety and Health Administration into the death of a minor worker who was drawn into a machine while cleaning it on July 14, 2023.

“Tragically, a teenager died unnecessarily before Mar-Jac Poultry took the necessary steps to protect its employees,” said Kurt Petermeyer, OSHA's Atlanta regional director. “This settlement requires the company to commit to a safer work environment and take concrete steps to protect its employees from known hazards. Improved monitoring and more training can go a long way toward minimizing the risks employees face in meat processing plants.”

“Mar-Jac has been aware of these safety issues for years and has been warned and punished by OSHA, but has done nothing. Hopefully Mar-Jac will follow through this time so that no other worker is killed in such a senseless manner,” Jim Reeves, an attorney for the victim's family, told WHLT-TV.

OSHA initially fined the plant $212,646, but the fine was reduced after hearing from the company. Mar-Jac has a history of safety violations. In this case, the company said it prohibited teenagers from doing dangerous work, and Mar-Jac blames Onin Staffing for illegally hiring Pérez. However, Onin denies that it was Pérez's employer.

The victim's family sued Mar-Jac Poultry MS LLC and Onin Staffing earlier this year. The suit alleges Perez was killed because Mar-Jac ignored safety procedures and failed to shut down machinery during sanitation procedures. The suit also alleges Onin Staffing was negligent in illegally employing the 16-year-old to work at the plant.

Mar-Jac Poultry, based in Gainesville, Georgia, has been raising live birds for poultry production for food industry customers in the United States and abroad since 1954 at facilities in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, the DOL said in a press release.

A phone call to the company on Friday requesting comment on the agreement went unanswered.

Photo: Mar-Jac Poultry in Hattiesburg. (Lici Beveridge/Hattiesburg American via AP)

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