Poultry processor Mar-Jac Poultry MS LLC reached a settlement with the Department of Labor (DOL), agreeing to pay $164,814 in fines and implement enhanced safety measures to protect its employees from well-known machine hazards, the department announced August 14.
In July 2023, a teenage worker at the company’s Hattiesburg, Mississippi, facility became caught in a machine while cleaning it.
In addition to abating violations cited in January by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the company must make the following changes:
- Add another properly trained supervisor to the sanitation shift.
- Provide workers who are 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.
Last summer, both OSHA and the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) started investigations into workplace safety and child labor violations at the Hattiesburg facility following the teen’s death.
OSHA obtained a warrant from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi to gain access to the Mar-Jac facility and investigate safety hazards related to the incident. The warrant allowed federal officials to question any agent, employee, employer, or operator privately and review records related to the operation and maintenance of the equipment involved in the incident.
In January, OSHA cited Mar-Jac with 14 serious and three other-than-serious safety violations.
“Tragically, a teenage boy died needlessly before Mar-Jac Poultry took required steps to protect its workers,” Kurt Petermeyer, OSHA’s Atlanta regional administrator, said in an agency statement. “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.”
The agency cited Mar-Jac Poultry following a May 31, 2021, incident in which an employee’s shirtsleeve got caught in a machine. The worker was pulled in, and his body was pinned against the support and the machine’s carousel, resulting in fatal injuries.
OSHA’s lockout/tagout standard (29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §1910.147) is its sixth most frequently cited standard, OSHA announced last year. In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the agency cited 2,554 violations. OSHA’s machine guarding standard (§1910.212) was its 10th most-cited standard, with 1,644 violations cited in FY 2023.
Gainesville, Georgia-based Mar-Jac Poultry has processing plants, feed mills, and hatcheries in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, according to OSHA. The company produces 2 million birds and 8,500 tons of feed per week, shipping worldwide, primarily to the food service industry.