A 16-year-old employee who died after getting sucked into equipment at a Mississippi poultry plant got the job using the identity of a 32-year-old man, a new revelation that highlights the ease with which migrant children are finding work in a dangerous industry, and the challenges companies face in trying to evaluate their true ages.
Duvan Pérez, who was hired to clean up at Mar-Jac Poultry in Hattiesburg, which supplies chicken to companies like Chick-fil-A, died on July 14. Within hours of his death, questions about his true age were raised by a local Facebook news site, and he was soon determined to be 16.
It’s illegal for minors to work in slaughterhouses, which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration considers among the most perilous workplaces in the country.
The number of children working illegally has skyrocketed across all industries, according to the Labor Department, nearly doubling since 2019. More than 800 child labor investigations in 47 states are ongoing across industries, according to the agency.
NBC News is capping a yearlong investigation into child labor in America with a new documentary called “Slaughterhouse Children,” based on reporting in two countries and six states, dozens of interviews and the review of thousands of pages of public records, accident reports and internal corporate documents.
During research for the documentary, Mar-Jac confirmed to NBC News that Perez had used the identity of a man in his 30s.
Shown a picture of the 16-year-old, Mar-Jac attorney Larry Stine said Perez did not look like a 32-year-old man. “But he might have looked 18,” said Stine, who has represented the Georgia-based company since the 1990s.
Mar-Jac blamed the hiring of the teenager on a staffing company that supplies workers to the plant.
Asked if the company was surprised to learn that Perez was 16, Stine said, “Yes, they were surprised, that I can tell you. They were surprised and somewhat horrified.”
Pérez’s family did not…
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