The chickens don’t decelerate.
Employees cling featherless our bodies the wrong way up onto hooks, lower the limbs and wings off the birds, and automatic machines separate viscera from meat, slicing by way of 144 chickens a minute.
Duvan Tomas Perez’s job was to sanitize the machines that take away hen’s bones and organs on the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the place over 100 million birds are slaughtered every year.
He shouldn’t have been there. The machine shouldn’t have turned on.
Perez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who was too younger to be legally working in a meatpacking facility, was sanitizing a vertical conveyor belt when he was pulled into the machine’s transferring gears and killed on July 14, 2023.
The Occupational Security and Well being Administration investigated his loss of life and located the corporate didn’t have correct practices to cease machines from unintentionally beginning whereas being cleaned.
OSHA referred to as {the teenager}’s loss of life “preventable” and ordered Mar-Jac Poultry, a provider of hen merchandise to wholesalers and common fast-food chains throughout the nation, together with Chick-fil-A, to pay $212,646 in fines.
OSHA had beforehand fined Mar-Jac for the same incident in 2021, however the firm had nonetheless not paid that high-quality when Perez was killed.
That’s as a result of the corporate’s attraction of the 2021 high-quality was nonetheless being reviewed by the Occupational Security and Well being Evaluation Fee, a separate company that opinions office security violation disputes between OSHA and corporations.
Over the previous decade, procedural slowdowns and commissioner vacancies have triggered security opinions to pile up and the appeals course of to take longer, throughout which era firms are usually not legally required to make security modifications and might proceed operations as regular and keep away from paying fines.
Since 2015, the time it takes judges working with the little-known Occupational Security and Well being Evaluation Fee to research appeals has elevated from lower than 18 months to over two years, in accordance with Examine Midwest’s evaluation of tons of of appeals.
The longer assessment interval got here even because the variety of circumstances reviewed has decreased by greater than half.
The Occupational Security and Well being Evaluation Fee is an unbiased entity and isn’t part of OSHA or its umbrella company, the Division of Labor.
Companies, together with meatpacking crops, are usually not obligated to repair security issues identified by OSHA whereas the fee is reviewing appeals.
“Employers see it as one thing that you just drag it out for so long as you possibly can, and when you’re dragging it out, nothing goes to vary contained in the office,” stated Elizabeth Walle, spokesperson for the Meals Chain Employees Alliance, a employee security advocacy group. “You’re not going to make a change within the office till you completely are pressured to.”
Walle stated the delays in fee opinions additionally ship the message to staff that reporting office hazards by way of official channels is ineffective.
A privately held firm primarily based in Gainesville, Georgia, Mar-Jac Poultry doesn’t report its annual income. The corporate owns slaughter crops in Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama.
Mar-Jac Poultry’s 2021 attraction was one of many lengthiest circumstances reviewed by the fee in comparison with different meat and agriculture firms contesting OSHA fines.
A part of the delay within the attraction course of is that the three-person fee, which operates a $16 million annual price range, has been and not using a quorum for over a 12 months. The fee didn’t assessment a single case in fiscal 12 months 2024 as a result of there was just one energetic commissioner.
The way forward for the fee is within the Trump administration’s palms as its sole member approaches the tip of her time period. Former President Joe Biden’s nominees by no means noticed a Senate affirmation listening to.
Trump has gutted comparable employee safety and labor commissions in latest weeks, with each the Nationwide Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Alternative Fee now unable to carry a quorum.
“At this level, it’s unclear if the present administration takes the route of letting this unbiased company wither on the vine by failing to appoint commissioners,” Heather MacDougall, a former chair of the fee, wrote in an e mail.
MacDougall additionally stated the rising complexity of circumstances has resulted in the next share of circumstances being petitioned for assessment.
Roughly 6% of all OSHA inspections performed in a 12 months end in an organization contesting a high-quality, in accordance with Examine Midwest’s evaluation.
Final 12 months, fee judges began the 12 months with roughly 1,400 circumstances in backlog, a 20% improve from 2014.
“The Evaluation Fee’s present lack of quorum is the first motive for a backlog — a difficulty that has plagued the Fee not solely over the previous 24 months however all through a considerable period of time for the reason that company was established,” MacDougall stated.
President Barack Obama first appointed MacDougall in 2014, and Trump appointed her chair of the fee in 2017. She left the company in 2019 to turn out to be Amazon’s vp of worldwide worker well being and security. She has since returned to personal observe as a lawyer and advisor.
“An excessive amount of of the time, the company just isn’t residing as much as its mission of truthful and expeditious decision of contested circumstances and, thus, not successfully serving its stakeholders,” she stated.
Whereas investigating one loss of life, one other occurs
On Might 31, 2021, Bobby Butler, 48, died on the Mar-Jac Poultry processing plant after his arm was pulled right into a transferring machine made for eviscerating chickens.
The Occupational Security and Well being Administration investigated the loss of life and located that workers and administration routinely reached into quickly transferring tools to repair jams, a observe that led to Butler’s loss of life, in accordance with data obtained from the company. The OSHA investigation famous the road was lacking security doorways and hazard notices.
The company fined Mar-Jac Poultry $27,306. The corporate contested the high-quality.
Firms fined by OSHA have the authorized proper to an attraction, a course of enshrined within the Occupational Security and Well being Act of 1970 and acted out by the separate assessment fee.
Not each contested case will attain the fee or obtain a listening to. Circumstances are sometimes settled exterior of the assessment course of or dismissed for numerous causes.
Mar-Jac Poultry’s attraction launched a assessment by one of many fee’s 12 judges, who make a suggestion to both change or uphold the preliminary high-quality and security orders. If the corporate contests the decide’s resolution, the three commissioners make a last ruling.
Throughout the fee’s assessment course of, Mar-Jac Poultry was not required to make modifications to its security procedures or pay any fines.
In July 2023, whereas Mar-Jac’s attraction had been below investigation for 19 months, Perez was killed whereas cleansing equipment on the firm’s Hattiesburg plant.
Just like the 2021 loss of life, OSHA cited an absence of security requirements and procedures when equipment was nonetheless in movement or energized. Investigators discovered {that a} lockout system was not used to stop equipment from beginning by itself whereas being sanitized.
The attraction associated to Butler’s loss of life was closed in October of 2023. The fee ordered Mar-Jac Poultry to pay practically $27,000.
Three months later, OSHA claimed in media stories that the corporate ought to have enforced stricter security requirements after the preliminary 2021 loss of life.
“Mar-Jac Poultry is conscious of how harmful the equipment they use could be when security requirements are usually not in place to stop severe damage and loss of life,” stated OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer in a 2024 press launch saying fines after the loss of life of Perez. “The corporate’s inaction has instantly led to this horrible tragedy, which has left so many to mourn this baby’s preventable loss of life.”
However in accordance with OSHA’s assessment fee and an OSHA spokesperson, the corporate just isn’t below a authorized obligation to make modifications whereas a case continues to be below assessment.
“When an employer contests an alleged violation, the abatement and proposed penalty for that violation is suspended till the fee points a last resolution,” Katherine Tracy, chief counsel to the fee’s chair, wrote in an e mail to Examine Midwest.
Quickly after the company introduced new fines for Perez’s loss of life, Mar-Jac filed an attraction.
As of March 2025, there are 30 attraction circumstances nonetheless pending assessment by the commissioners, the oldest are from 2021.
In fiscal 12 months 2024, the fee didn’t difficulty any choices, on account of an absence of quorum.
Cynthia Attwood, the present chair of the fee, took workplace in 2010 and has been reappointed by presidents Obama, Trump and Biden. Her time period expires subsequent month.
She is the one energetic commissioner of the company, with an annual wage of practically $170,000.
One place has been vacant since 2021 and the opposite since April 2023.
Amanda Wooden Laihow, a former commissioner, and Mark Eskenazi, a former Nationwide Labor Relations Board lawyer, had been nominated by Biden for the 2 open positions and had been awaiting Senate affirmation since October 2023 and August 2024, respectively.
Biden’s appointments had been rescinded from the affirmation calendar on the finish of the 2024 Senate session. When Atwood’s time period expires, the Trump administration might be accountable for recommending new fee members and a chair.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions opinions presidential fee suggestions, passing them on for a vote of the total Senate. The committee didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Tracy declined to reply questions on how the dearth of quorum on the fee is impacting decision-making on the decide assessment degree.
The fee said in its 2024 accountability report “over the previous 5 years the fee has operated with fewer than three commissioners over 75% of the time and operated with just one commissioner 40% of the time.”
Household sues Chick-fil-A, poultry plant, staffing company and others
Final 12 months, the household of Perez sued the poultry firm and the staffing company that employed {the teenager}. The lawsuit continues to be pending. Legal professionals for the Perez household declined to remark.
The household has added different defendants to the declare, together with the producer of the equipment and Chick-fil-A, the favored hen sandwich fast-food chain headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Chick-fil-A, which has over 3,000 eating places worldwide, buys hen from Mar-Jac, in accordance with authorized filings.
Mar-Jac Poultry and Chick-fil-A didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
“Duvan’s tragic and preventable loss of life was the results of failures at a number of ranges, “ Mark Chavez, an lawyer representing Duvan Perez’s father within the wrongful loss of life lawsuit, stated in an announcement.
“Whereas office security violations have rightfully been uncovered, our focus is on holding all accountable events accountable, together with those that designed and manufactured the damaging equipment that contributed to this horrible loss.”
Each Mar-Jac Poultry, whose government management contains members of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Affiliation and the Georgia Division of Financial Improvement board, and the staffing company that employed Perez deny any wrongdoing. Each have additionally stated that different deaths and employee accidents on the Hattiesburg plant are usually not related to the case, in accordance with authorized filings.
The businesses admit Perez labored on the facility and died whereas engaged on the machine, however deny he was cleansing a still-energized machine.
“The Plaintiff’s decedent’s negligence was the only real and/or proximate contributing reason behind Plaintiff’s accidents,” Mar-Jac attorneys wrote in a March 2024 courtroom submitting.
The corporate’s attorneys additionally allege that the Perez household wouldn’t be entitled to any damages as a result of Immigration Reform Management Act, a 1986 regulation that prohibits employers from hiring undocumented staff and has been utilized in previous lawsuits to stop authorized claims to undocumented staff.
An estimated 1.7 million undocumented individuals work within the nation’s meals and agriculture sectors, with practically 83,000 working in meatpacking and processing services, in accordance with a 2021 report from the Middle for American Progress.
The Division of Labor can be actively investigating the corporate’s hiring of underage staff.
Whereas Mar-Jac Poultry just isn’t required to abate a contested quotation merchandise till the Occupational Security and Well being Evaluation Fee points a last order, “OSHA encourages employers to finish corrective motion earlier to guard its workers,” a Division of Labor spokesperson advised Examine Midwest.
In August 2024, Mar-Jac Poultry settled its attraction of the OSHA fines from the Perez loss of life. The corporate is now required to pay practically $165,000, roughly $50,000 lower than the unique high-quality. A fee spokesperson confirmed that the contestment has been settled and closed.
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