Mar-Jac Poultry mentioned it was unaware {that a} employee who died in a office accident on July 14 was underage, and had the corporate recognized, he wouldn’t have been an worker on the firm’s plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The accident occurred as the worker turned entangled in tools he was cleansing. NBC Information recognized the employee as Duvan Tomas Perez, whom relations mentioned was a 16-year-old Guatemalan immigrant and center faculty pupil.
Perez’s obituary mentioned he was a ninth grader at N.R. Burger Center Faculty, and his hobbies included being exterior together with his siblings, engaged on his automotive, going to the health club and listening to music.
In a press launch, Mar-Jac Poultry mentioned the corporate was unaware of his age, and that he had truly been employed by a staffing firm with which Mar-Jac contracts.
“This tragedy was compounded after we realized that the sufferer was a minor,” the corporate said in its launch. “As a consequence of an unprecedently tight labor market, Mar-Jac MS depends on staffing corporations to fill place at its facility.”
The corporate added that it didn’t condone the hiring of minors.
“These corporations’ contracts with Mar-Jac MS require them to confirm that each applicant is legally certified to work earlier than they begin any job. This consists of verifying their identification (together with age) and immigration standing utilizing the I-9 kind prescribed by the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) and thru the federal government’s E-Confirm system. Mar-Jac MS depends on these corporations to full these checks and it’s a situation of their contracts with Mar-JacMS that they achieve this for each job applicant, with out exception,” the corporate said.
The incident is being investigated by the Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA), which Mar-Jac mentioned it notified instantly after the incident.
“Though the investigation continues to be ongoing, it seems now that this employee was lower than 18 years of age and mustn’t have been employed. Mar-Jac MS would by no means knowingly put any worker, and definitely not a minor, in hurt’s method, however at this level within the investigation, that this particular person’s age and identification have been misrepresented on the paperwork,” Mar-Jac mentioned.
The identification of the corporate that employed Perez has not but been disclosed. Nonetheless, Mar-Jac mentioned it’s “endeavor a radical audit” with the staffing corporations to make sure that this type of error by no means occurs once more.
This incident marks the third fatality to happen on the Hattiesburg plant in current historical past. On December 15, 2020, Joel Velasco Toto died after an incident within the plant’s battery altering room. Police mentioned 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 part of Mar-Jac Poultry’s operations since 2014, when the corporate acquired the previous belongings of poultry integrator Marshall Durbin Cos. positioned in Alabama and Mississippi in 2014.
Mar-Jac Poultry, in line with the WATTPoultry.com Prime Poultry Corporations Database, is the 15th largest poultry producer in america, having processed 15.88 million kilos of ready-to-cook rooster on a weekly foundation throughout the previous yr.
