HATTIESBURG, MISS. — The US Department of Labor (DOL) and Mar-Jac Poultry reached a settlement amounting to $164,814 in fines following an incident involving a 16-year-old boy who suffered a fatal work injury, according to the DOL.

According to an investigation, conducted by the DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Mar-Jac’s poultry processing plant in Hattiesburg, Miss., failed to use required safety procedures that could have prevented the teenage worker from fatally getting caught in a machine in July 2023.

The report noted that the boy was a contract worker employed by Onion Staffing LLC. The incident occurred while performing a deep clean of the deboning area on a still-energized machine. While a manager was present before and during the incident, lockout/tagout procedures were not implemented to disconnect power to the machine nor to prevent the machine from unintentionally starting up during sanitation.

OSHA cited Mar-Jac with 14 serious violations and three other-than-serious violations.

As part of the settlement, Mar-Jac will abate all violations cited by OSHA and implement the following improvements:

• Add another properly trained supervisor to the sanitation shift.
• Provide workers exposed to lockout/tagout and machine guarding hazards with updated training.
• Require the plant’s manager and safety director to complete OSHA’s 30-hour general industry training and plant supervisors to complete OSHA’s 10-hour training.
• Institute a system for assigning, identifying and issuing locks to authorized employees performing lockout/tagout functions and update programs and training to reflect this requirement.
• Conduct a risk and hazard assessment to evaluate the safety exposures and hazards associated with current lockout/tagout procedures for the sanitation shift. The assessment must include a review of any incidents, including near misses, injuries and unexpected start-ups or malfunctions of machinery.
• Perform monthly lockout/tagout safety audits for the sanitation shift for one year and provide proof to OSHA, including what steps the employer is taking to reduce hazards in response to the audits.