HATTIESBURG, MISS. — The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Mar-Jac Poultry MS LLC for disregarding safety standards that led to the death of a 16-year-old sanitation worker. OSHA proposed $212,646 in penalties.

The worker suffered a fatal injury on July 14, 2023, after being pulled into a machine at Mar-Jac’s Hattiesburg, Miss., plant.

According to OSHA's report, the 16-year-old was a contract worker employed by Onion Staffing LLC. They were performing a deep clean of the deboning area on a still-energized machine when they were caught in the rotating shaft and sprockets and pulled in.

OSHA investigators found that while a manager supervised in and around the area before and during the fatal incident, 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 sanitation.

OSHA cited Mar-Jac with 14 serious and three other-than-serious violations, including failure 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. 
• 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. 

In addition to OSHA’s investigation, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division has opened a child labor investigation.

“Mar-Jac MS would never knowingly put any employee, and certainly not a minor, in harm’s way but it appears, at this point in the investigation, that this individual’s age and identity were misrepresented on the paperwork,” Mar-Jac told MEAT+POULTRY at the time of OSHA’s investigation.

OSHA previously cited Mar-Jac in May 2021 for another incident that resulted in an employee’s death. As the employee attempted to remove stuck chickens and chicken parts from a rotating carousel while it was operating, the worker was pulled in and their body pinned against the support and the machine’s carousel, resulting in fatal injuries.