The U.S. Division of Labor’s Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) cited Mar-Jac Poultry in an incident that led to the demise of a 16-year-old boy on the firm’s poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

The citations stem from the incident that occurred on July 14, 2023, when a boy, recognized later as Duvan Tomas Perez, was performing a deep clear of the deboning space of the plant. Whereas sanitizing the still-energized machine, Perez was caught in the rotating shaft and sprockets and pulled in, sustaining deadly accidents. Investigators, in line with OSHA, discovered that – regardless of a supervisor’s supervision in and across the space previous to and through the deadly incident –  lockout/tagout procedures weren’t utilized to disconnect energy to the machine and a lockout/tagout machine was not used to stop the machine from unintentionally beginning through the cleansing. 

OSHA cited Mar-Jac Poultry with 14 critical and three other-than-serious violations after discovering the corporate allegedly did not: 

• Guarantee power management procedures had been used to stop the sudden start-up of machines whereas workers carried out sanitation, exposing staff to caught-in hazards. 
• Guarantee workers used lockout/tagout gadgets on equipment when performing cleansing.
• Guarantee an power management process included particular steps for blocking and securing parts of the equipment whereas staff carried out cleansing. 
• Failed to make sure the equipment retained guarding to stop workers from coming into hazard zones whereas equipment was in operation. 
• Cowl open holes in 480-volt electrical cupboards, exposing staff to electrical hazards. 
• Stop staff from utilizing transportable ladders incorrectly to realize entry to elevated work surfaces, exposing staff to fall hazards.

OSHA has proposed $212,646 in penalties associated to the citations. That quantity was set by federal statute. 

Mar-Jac has 15 enterprise days from receipt of the citations and penalties to conform, request an off-the-cuff convention with OSHA, or contest the findings earlier than the unbiased Occupational Security and Well being Overview Fee. 

Perez was a contract employee who was employed by and employed by Onin Staffing to do sanitation work. As of now, Onin Staffing doesn’t face any citations.

Perez was the third employee on the Hattiesburg plant to die on the job in current historical past. On December 15, 2020, Joel Velasco Toto died after an incident within the plant’s battery altering room. Police stated that incident occurred on account of horseplay.

Then, on Could 31, 2021, Bobby Butler was killed whereas working with evisceration equipment in the plant.

The Hattiesburg poultry plant has been a component of Mar-Jac Poultry’s operations since 2014, when the corporate acquired the former belongings of poultry integrator Marshall Durbin Cos. positioned in Alabama and Mississippi in 2014.