Mississippi Teen Died on the Job: Employer Pays $164K Fine

A Mississippi poultry processing plant has agreed to pay $164,814 in fines and implement enhanced safety measures after a teen died on the job in 2023.

An OSHA investigation determined the 16-year-old employee was pulled into a deboning machine while cleaning it and cited Mar-Jac Poultry MS LLC for several serious violations, including a failure to follow standard lockout/tagout procedures to keep machines turned off while employees clean them.

Settlement Requires New Workplace Safety Measures

OSHA initially proposed $212,646 in fines. Mar-Jac Poultry contested the violations, and the parties reached an agreement to settle the matter.

Under the agreement, Mar-Jac Poultry must abate all the violations cited by OSHA and put into place the following safety enhancements: 

• 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 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. 

 “Tragically, a teenage boy died needlessly before Mar-Jac Poultry took required steps to protect its workers,” said Kurt Petermeyer, OSHA Regional Administrator in Atlanta. “This settlement demands the company commit to a safer workplace environment and take tangible actions to protect their employees from well-known hazards. Enhanced supervision and increased training can go a long way toward minimizing risks faced by workers in meat processing facilities.”

Mar-Jac Poultry is headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia. Since 1954, it has raised live birds for poultry production at facilities in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.