HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WHLT) – A Hattiesburg poultry processing plant has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after a 16-year-old died at the facility.
The underaged employee was killed at Mar-Jac Poultry on James Street around 8:00 p.m. on Friday, July 14, 2023.
According to federal safety investigators, 16-year-old Duvan Thomas Perez was killed when he was pulled into a machine while performing a deep clean of the deboning area at Mar-Jac. OSHA found that he was caught in the rotating shaft and sprockets before he was pulled in.
Investigators found that despite a manager’s supervision in and around the area, lockout/tagout procedures were not utilized to disconnect power to the machine and a lockout/tagout device was not used to prevent the machine from unintentionally starting during the cleaning.
“Mar-Jac Poultry is aware of how dangerous the machinery they use 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 to mourn this child’s preventable death,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer.
OSHA cited Mar-Jac with 14 serious and three other-than-serious violations after finding the company failed to:
- Ensure energy control procedures were used to prevent the unexpected start-up of machines while employees performed sanitation, exposing workers to caught-in hazards.
- Ensure employees used lockout/tagout devices on machinery when performing cleaning.
- Ensure an energy control procedure included specific steps for blocking and securing portions of the machinery while workers performed cleaning.
- Failed to ensure the machinery retained guarding to prevent employees from entering danger zones while machinery was in operation.
- Cover open holes in 480-volt electrical cabinets, exposing workers to electrical hazards.
- Prevent workers from using portable ladders incorrectly to gain access to elevated work surfaces, exposing workers to fall hazards.
OSHA has proposed $212,646 in penalties, an amount set by federal statute.
The agency previously cited Mar-Jac after a May 31, 2021, incident in which an employee’s shirt sleeve was caught in a machine and they were pulled in, pinning their body against the support and the machine’s carousel, resulting in fatal injuries.
“Following the fatal incident in May 2021 Mar-Jac Poultry should have enforced strict safety standards in its facility,” Petermeyer added. “Only about two years later nothing has changed and the company continues to treat employee safety as an afterthought, putting its workers at risk. No worker should be placed in a preventable, dangerous situation, let alone a child.”
In addition to OSHA’s investigation, the department’s Wage and Hour Division has an open child labor investigation and the matter is currently pending.
OSHA officials said the company has five business days from receipt of their citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
WJTV 12 News reached out to Mar-Jac for a statement.
“Thank you for reaching out. Unfortunately, we will not be releasing a statement on this matter,” said James Dickinson, Jr., supervisor for Human Resources for Mar-Jac.