The mother of a 16-year-old boy who died in a work accident at a Mississippi poultry plant is suing the company that employed him for failing to follow safety standards that could have prevented his death. .
In court papers filed last week in Forrest County Circuit Court, an attorney for Edilma Perez Ramirez said Mar Jack Poultry bypassed safety protections and caused the death of her son, Duvan Perez. Ta. The lawsuit follows a January report from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration that found numerous safety violations related to the death of the teenager, who immigrated to Mississippi from Guatemala several years ago.
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“Mar-Jac and its affiliates have a long and sordid history of willful disregard for worker safety,” the lawsuit says.
A spokesperson for Ma Jack did not respond to email and phone messages Tuesday. The company said in an earlier statement that it relies on a staffing agency to hire its employees and that it had no knowledge that Mr. Duban was a minor. Federal labor law prohibits the employment of minors in some hazardous workplaces, such as slaughterhouses and meat processing plants.
In July, Duban became the third worker to die in less than three years at a Hattiesburg, Mississippi, plant owned by Georgia-based poultry production company Mah Jack Co.
In 2020, 33-year-old Joel Velasco Toto died after a co-worker “inserted an air compression hose into his rectum,” according to the complaint. In 2021, 48-year-old Bobby Butler died after being caught in a cleaning machine.
Edilma Perez Ramirez of Mississippi, the mother of 16-year-old Duban, who died in a workplace accident, claimed that Marjak Poultry neglected to provide safety equipment.
Workplace safety officials launched an investigation into Duban’s death in July. OSHA investigators discovered that he died while performing a deep cleaning of machinery in the deboning area of the plant. Officials said the man became entangled in the rotating shaft of the machine, which still had power, and was dragged under.
The complaint alleges that Marjak allowed Duban to clean the equipment despite his age and inadequate training.
Perez Ramirez’s lawyers also sued Ornin Staffing, an Alabama-based company with operations in Mississippi. According to the suit, the employment agency assigned Mr. Duban to work at the factory knowing he was a minor. After Duban’s death, Onin filed a notice with the state to avoid paying workers’ compensation, the lawsuit alleges.
Onin did not respond to emailed questions Tuesday.
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Federal investigators said plant managers should have followed procedures to have workers turn off power to machines and prevent machines from restarting unintentionally during cleaning. They cited Ma Jack for workplace violations and recommended fines of more than $200,000.
According to the complaint, OSHA had issued at least eight citations to Mr. Duban for safety violations at the plant before his death. These include the deaths of Toto and Butler, three amputations, and one hospitalization due to a fall.
After the accident, Labor Department officials said Duban’s death was a reminder that children remain vulnerable to exploitation in American workplaces.
Seth Hunter, one of Perez Ramirez’s attorneys, said in a written statement that Marjack’s customers, including Chick-fil-A, should insist on better working conditions or stop doing business with the company.
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Duvan was “a hard worker and loved his family,” Hunter said. “One of the things he was most proud of was paying for his first car himself. Even though his death could have been easily prevented, this young life was taken. It’s a tragedy what happened.”
