A Mar-Jac Poultry employee was killed on July 14 as a result of a workplace accident at the company’s facility in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the company confirmed.
The worker was conducting sanitation operations at the plant at the time of the accident.
“Our employees are our most valuable asset and safety is our No. 1 priority,” Hattiesburg Complex Manager Joe Colee said in a press release. “We strive daily to work as safely as possible and are truly devastated whenever an employee is injured.”
The release did not release the identity of the accident victim, but local media outlets WDAM and Pine Belt News both reported that the worker was a 16-year-old male, citing Forrest County Deputy Coroner Lisa Klem as their source for that information.
Mar-Jac stated that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the incident and that the company is fully cooperating.
“Mar Jac Poultry MS LLC has a comprehensive safety program and conducts extensive and regular training to ensure safe working conditions for all employees. Any issues identified in the investigation will be corrected immediately,” the release stated.
This incident marks the third fatality to occur at the Hattiesburg plant in recent history. On December 15, 2020, Joel Velasco Toto died after an incident in the plant’s battery changing room. Police said that incident occurred as a result of horseplay.
Then, on May 31, 2021, Bobby Butler was killed while working with evisceration machinery in the plant.
The Hattiesburg poultry plant has been a part of Mar-Jac Poultry’s operations since 2014, when the company acquired the former assets of poultry integrator Marshall Durbin Cos. located in Alabama and Mississippi in 2014.
Mar-Jac Poultry, according to the WATTPoultry.com Top Poultry Companies Database, is the 15th largest poultry producer in the United States, having processed 15.88 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis during the past year.
