Mar-Jac Poultry faces more federal scrutiny after children found working at Alabama plant
The U.S. Department of Labor is asking a federal court to penalize an Alabama chicken processing plant after it found children working at the facility.
The move comes less than a year after a 16-year-old was killed at a chicken processing plant in Mississippi owned by the same company.
Duvan Perez, an indigenous Mayan from Guatemala, died July 14 after getting caught in equipment while cleaning at the Hattiesburg poultry processing plant. Federal child labor laws prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from working at any meat-processing plant.
OSHA fined Mar-Jac more than $212,000 after finding numerous safety violations, some of which are considered "serious." In addition, Perez's mother, Edilma Perez Ramirez is seeking unspecified damages in a wrongful death lawsuit against the company.
“This company has blatantly disregarded safety for years and continues to do so. Mar-Jac continues to hire minors to work in jobs where it is prohibited by Federal Law," attorney Jim Reeves said. "What is it going to take for OSHA to shut these companies down or for customers like Chick-fil-A to stop doing business with them? How many children have to be exploited, injured and killed?”
Reeves is one of the attorneys representing Perez's family.
DOL officials say any products that come from Mar-Jac Poultry of Alabama in Jasper for up to 30 days after the discovery was made should be considered "hot goods," making it illegal for the company to profit from those products.
"On May 1, 2024, investigators with the Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor (“WHD”), discovered oppressive child labor at Defendant’s poultry processing facility, namely children working on the kill floor deboning poultry and cutting carcasses, during a May 1, 2024, civil search warrant," the complaint said. "The children had been working at the facility for months, and Defendant continually removed goods from the facility the entire time, including after the search warrant, and over WHD’s objection."
According to court documents, at least five children younger than 18 were found "working on the killing floor, hanging live chickens on hooks for slaughter and cutting meat from the carcasses, which is a prohibited hazardous occupation for minors."
Mar-Jac officials are countering the move, saying they would have to lay off more than 1,000 workers if the facility is temporarily shut down. The company said if it shut down for 30 days, it would result in "seismic economic consequences on the community."
The government, however, contends the company is trying to deflect its responsibility to protect children by claiming it would cause a major impact.
Mar-Jac's position "is a misguided attempt to persuade this Court to allow Defendant to flout the inherent dangers of oppressive child labor and its obligations under the Fair Labor Standards Act," the DOL said in its response to Mar-Jac.
The company said the Department of Labor Investigators claimed they found three underage employees and notified the company that others were found after the initial search. Mar-Jac officials said the alleged minors showed proof that they were over 17 and legally allowed to work in the United States. The company says it does not hire anyone younger than 18.
In addition to denying knowingly hiring underage workers, Mar-Jac officials said the ones the government claimed are minors did not work on the kill floor, but handled poultry in other areas of the facility, which is not illegal according the federal child labor laws.
"None of these employees worked on the killing floor and none was engaged in hanging (or killing) live birds," Mar-Jac officials said in their response to the government's claims.
A federal judge ordered the Department of Labor to provide more information on the Alabama case, before deciding whether to issue the "hot goods" measure.
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This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Mar-Jac Poultry sued after underage workers found at Alabama plant
