Three issues to know
One among Chick-fil-A’s main poultry suppliers, Mar-Jac Poultry, was fined $385,000 for illegally using kids as younger as 13 at its Alabama facility.
14- and 15-year-olds labored in a single day shifts and carried out hazardous duties, together with eviscerating poultry and working forklifts.
16-year-old Duvan Tomas Perez died in 2023 whereas cleansing equipment at Mar-Jac’s Mississippi plant. He’s one in all two staff who died on the web site in recent times.
One among Chick-fil-A’s main poultry suppliers was lately fined for repeated little one labor legislation violations, with kids as younger as 13 working at an Alabama-based facility.
Chick-fil-A, the nation’s largest rooster sandwich fast service restaurant with 3,000 areas worldwide, buys rooster from Mar-Jac Poultry, in accordance with authorized filings.
Final month, the U.S. Division of Labor fined Mar-Jac Poultry $385,000 after a baby labor investigation discovered that the poultry processing firm routinely employed kids as younger as 13 years previous at its facility in Jasper, Alabama.
The investigation additionally discovered that 14 and 15-year-olds carried out hazardous duties similar to eviscerating poultry, working forklifts and dealing on the plant’s kill ground, in accordance with the DOL. These kids had been additionally working in a single day shifts between 10 p.m. and seven a.m., exterior legally allowed hours.
“Mar-Jac Poultry has repeatedly been discovered to place younger staff in danger, ensuing within the tragic demise of a kid at their Mississippi facility in 2023,” Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Juan Coria mentioned in a DOL assertion.
Examine Midwest repeatedly reached out to Chick-fil-A for touch upon the DOL’s investigation and its present relationship with Mar-Jac Poultry, however the firm has not responded.
Mar-Jac Poultry, a privately-held firm based mostly in Gainesville, Georgia, owns slaughter vegetation in Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama. The corporate mentioned in an announcement that it has complied with the DOL, however claims it didn’t knowingly rent underage workers.
“Mar-Jac solely accepts job functions from people who’re over 18, and is glad to agree with the U.S. Division of Labor to proceed to take action. Our coverage towards hiring minors ensures that individuals below 18 should not uncovered to the dangers inherent in sure hazardous occupations,” mentioned Joel Williams, senior vice chairman of operations, in an announcement. “With the decision of this lawsuit Mar-Jac can concentrate on offering good jobs to grownup staff and healthful merchandise to shoppers.”
The corporate declined to reply questions on how the settlement has impacted its prospects and whether or not Chick-fil-A remained an lively purchaser.
A historical past of hurt
The settlement between DOL and Mar-Jac Poultry comes after years of employee accidents and deaths at Mar-Jac amenities, together with the demise of 16-year-old Duvan Tomas Perez.
Perez, a Guatemalan immigrant who was too younger to be legally working at Mar-Jac Poultry’s Mississippi meatpacking facility, died whereas sanitizing a vertical conveyor belt when he was pulled into the machine’s shifting gears and killed on July 14, 2023.
Two years prior, Bobby Butler, 48, died on the similar Mar-Jac Poultry processing plant after his arm was pulled right into a shifting machine made for eviscerating chickens.
This yr, Examine Midwest printed an investigation into how Mar-Jac Poultry and different corporations have benefited from delays and a rising backlog of instances held by the fee that critiques chargeable for reviewing firm challenges to Division of Labor violations.
Mar-Jac Poultry’s numerous amenities have paid practically $1 million in office security and wage violations since 2009, in accordance with DOL filings, together with its latest little one labor violation fines.
The variety of little one labor legislation violations has elevated by 35% within the final decade, with financial fines tripling in the identical time.
As investigations have risen, some federal lawmakers have referred to as for elevated probes into the meatpacking trade for little one labor. Nevertheless, the businesses that examine these claims have been hit by latest federal workforce reductions, which may impede these actions.
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