After a 16-year-old boy died while cleaning a poultry plant, the company agreed to review safety issues.
A Mississippi poultry processing plant has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor that requires the plant to pay $164,814 in fines and implement enhanced safety measures. death of a 16-year-old boy at the facility.
The settlement, announced Friday in a news release, comes after an investigation by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration into Mar-Jac Poultry. death of an underage worker person who was pulled into a machine when they clean up on July 14, 2023.
“Tragically, a teenage boy died needlessly before Mar-Jac Poultry took the necessary steps to protect its workers,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer in Atlanta. “This settlement requires the company to commit to creating a safer work environment and take specific actions to protect its employees from known hazards. Increased oversight and enhanced training can significantly reduce the risks workers face in meat processing facilities.”
“Mar-Jac has known about these safety issues for years and has been warned and fined by OSHA, but has done nothing. Hopefully Mar-Jac will act this time so that no other workers are killed in such a senseless manner,” said Jim Reeves, an attorney for the victim’s family. told WHLT-TV.
The victim’s family sued Mar-Jac Poultry MS, LLC and Onin Staffing earlier this year. The lawsuit alleges that Perez was killed because Mar-Jac ignored safety regulations and failed to turn off machinery during cleaning. The lawsuit also alleges that Onin Staffing was negligent in illegally assigning the 16-year-old to work at the plant.
Headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia, Mar-Jac Poultry has been raising live poultry for poultry production since 1954 at facilities in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi for foodservice customers in the United States and abroad, the DOL press release said.
A phone call to the company Friday seeking comment on the deal was not returned.
