Duvan Robert Tomas Perez, 16, was a sanitation employee on the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Miss. A press release from the plant says Perez died after he turned entangled in a machine he was cleansing.

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Duvan Robert Tomas Perez, 16, was a sanitation employee on the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Miss. A press release from the plant says Perez died after he turned entangled in a machine he was cleansing.

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An adolescent died whereas working underage at a Mississippi poultry plant final week, the third unintended dying on the facility in lower than three years.

Sixteen-year-old Duvan Robert Tomas Perez died whereas on the job on the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Miss., final Friday. Forrest County Deputy Coroner Lisa Klem confirmed the the place and when of Perez’s dying, however stated she could not launch particular particulars on the request of the household.

In a press launch obtained by NPR, Mar-Jac Poultry stated {that a} sanitation worker on the plant suffered a deadly damage when he “became entangled” within the one of many machines he was cleansing. According to the assertion, the plant instantly notified the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and an investigation was launched with the corporate’s full cooperation.

The assertion didn’t point out Perez by identify.

Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity (IAJE) spokesperson Jess Manrriquez advised NPR that Perez and his household are indigenous Guatemalans who immigrated roughly six years in the past.

“Workers are put in these conditions that are truly deplorable,” Manrriquez stated. “We’ve been hearing from folks on the ground that there is a lot of child labor that is happening at that poultry plant, so there’s a lot that needs to be investigated. But right now, we just want to help the family through this process.”

Lorena Quiroz, IAJE government director, stated in a written statement that the group is asking OSHA and the Labor Department to conduct a statewide investigation to place an finish to baby labor and dangerous working circumstances.

NPR reached out to OSHA for remark, however these calls went unreturned earlier than publication.

Perez, who was going into the ninth grade, was too younger to legally work on the plant, in line with the Labor Department. Federal legislation requires employees to be no less than 18 to work in meatpacking services as a result of inherent risks of the occupation.

Mar-Jac acknowledged in its assertion that the worker was underneath 18 and by no means ought to have been employed.

“Mar-Jac MS would never knowingly put any employee, and certainly not a minor, in harm’s way,” the assertion reads. “But it appears, at this point in the investigation, that this individual’s age and identity were misrepresented on the paperwork.”

The firm stated it is conducting a radical audit with staffing corporations used to convey on staff to make sure an incident like this “never happens again.”

This was the third dying on the Mar-Jac plant in lower than three years. According to an open OSHA case, a workers member died on account of “horse play” in December 2020. The Associated Press reported on the time that Joel Velasco Toto, 33, died from “abdominal and pelvic trauma caused by a compressed air injury.”

Less than seven months later, Mississippi’s WDAM 7 reported that 28-year-old Bobby Butler died in an accident involving heavy equipment in May 2021.