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Minor who died in poultry plant accident got the job with the identity of a 32-year-old

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.

SeaJ ,

Adam Conover has a nice short video on the rise in child labor:

youtu.be/_ve6BqXzbjw?si=w17wg9G2xN5Z2oKQ

It’s because we don’t turn away unaccompanied minors like we do adults at the border. So more parents send their kids alone or separately. If we were not as harsh with adults at the border, it would likely be a lot better.

nutsack ,

this is very common throughout southeast asia. the company uses a staffing agency who is always looking the other way and nobody involved gives a fuck except the foreigner they hired from germany to run the plant.

pan_troglodytes ,

so… HR was corrupt or the hiring manager had a quota to fill or… ?

BrianTheeBiscuiteer ,

Arkansas: He wouldn’t have needed to fake his identity here.

SeaJ , (edited )

He is an undocumented immigrant so he did not really have ID of his own.

I get the sentiment though. Fuck Arkansas and their shitty child labor laws but this ties into a whole different issue.

seejur ,

I mean, it should get doable to get the difference between a 16 and a 32 y old person. The HR in there definitely could not give a fuck and played on plausibility

SeaJ ,

100%

Whoever hired him should be put in jail.

inclementimmigrant ,

Yeah, “accidentally”.

chrischryse ,

So what made him not get a job somewhere a high schooler can work? Why use someone’s stolen identity to get a job?

girlfreddy ,

Because he was legally underage to work in the plant. And he may not have had ID in the first place.

chrischryse ,

If he didn’t have any type of info how could he attend school then?

girlfreddy ,

I have no idea.

diffcalculus ,

You’re not required to provide an SSN to attend public high school. They can ask, but you don’t have to provide it.

chrischryse ,

Really? I thought you at least needed birth certificates

Microw ,

Probably because these jobs pay better than a high schoolers job

assassin_aragorn ,

They do, but in no way it’s a high schooler qualified for it. There’s an inherent risk that I consider all minors to be incapable of consenting to accept. Turn the wrong valve, and you’ll turn a controlled furnace into a raging fire. The operator needs to not only accept and understand that risk, but to keep a cool head and stop a safety incident from happening or getting worse. Having a kid in that position not only jeopardizes their safety, but the safety of everyone else there too.

When we do hazard analysis and consider the safety measures a plant needs, we don’t usually credit the operators as a layer of safety, but we do assume they have their wits about them when we consider what’s credible to happen. We don’t consider the possibility of them tossing gas onto a fire for instance. I don’t think a kid would do that, but it’s not out of question to think that a kid could accidentally make a situation worse compared to an adult worker.

Just because you don’t need more than a high school degree for a job didn’t mean the job doesn’t command respect. I find it’s the norm for operators to be way more knowledgeable than the new engineer fresh from college. Their experience gives them an intimate know how that is on par with studying the subject.

Microw ,

Yeah, I think that’s a given. Anyone should agree about that.

inclementimmigrant ,

As a guy who worked factory jobs starting at 14 years of age I can tell you why I worked a factory job.

They pay a lot more money than working your traditional high school job and you get a lot more hours especially if you don’t mind working under the table.

Now if you’re poor and want to help keep your family from starving and having a roof over your head, it’s a no brainer to work those jobs despite the risks.

ElcaineVolta ,
@ElcaineVolta@kbin.social avatar

being vegan isn't just about your health, the climate, or the protection of animals; it's about disassembling this horrific industry from the ground up. animal agriculture is inherently exploitative and stories like these are just another reason among many to make the connection and get on the right side of these issues.

raynethackery ,

I agree, but then we also need to look at labor practices in farming.

ElcaineVolta ,
@ElcaineVolta@kbin.social avatar

you are absolutely right, safety and dignity in the workforce is in need of an overhaul, at least this year has had some highlights on that front; given some of the union victories and movements toward organization.
ideally, our immigration systems in the US, or lack thereof, would be next in line for such a refocus.
pinning down the marginalized to be fleeced for exploitation is the obvious outcome of a capitalistic system, and cruelty seems to be the point.

centof ,

Now why do I doubt that anyone of the bosses responsible for this hiring will be held personally accountable? I have a sneaking suspicion some measly fines (compared to company profits) will be the result of the vast majority of these ‘investigations.’

I hope I’m wrong.

Mirshe ,

You’re not wrong, and that’s the sad part. They just caught a warehouse here in Cincinnati using an 11 year old and a 13 year old to shift pallets, with one of them operating a forklift. The entire thing amounted to a $30k fine, for a company that makes multiple billions a year.

assassin_aragorn ,

That’s the thing I can’t get. In all cases with minors illegally working, they have a boss or supervisor. And they’re just fine with that? They take it in their stride instead of taking it to the press?

I honestly can’t fathom it because all the supervisors I’ve had, regardless of their strengths and weaknesses, genuinely cared about me as a person. It was the corpo suits and execs that didn’t give a shit.

Christ, they need to thoroughly investigate these companies, because this highly suggests there’s more wrongdoing to be found.

centof ,

“It’s very hard to convince a man of something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.” - George Carlin

ultranaut ,

-Upton Sinclair

TowardsTheFuture ,

Very obviously not 32, doesn’t even look 18, but sure I suppose it could be. But is this 32 year old man he supposedly is even real? Is there a social he gave for a 32 year old? Or he just say “yeah I’m 32.” And they’re like “cool deniable enough for me!”

kautau ,

Sounds like these are all real stolen identities

One person told police in 2021 that they tried to apply for unemployment in Florida but were told their identity was being used by an employee at Mar-Jac. A police report quotes the complainant’s email saying, “I called Mar-Jac poultry to notify them and was told by [redacted], the HR supervisor that I couldn’t do anything without a police report and he couldn’t help me in any way.”

Another person called local police in 2022 saying she was unable to get child care assistance in Texas because her identity was being used by a Mar-Jac worker. “[Redacted] stated she’s never lived outside of the state of Texas,” the police report said. “She contacted HR at Mar-Jac and was informed that they couldn’t give her any information and to contact the police department.”

Mirshe ,

Sounds like HR knew these were stolen identities, and did absolutely nothing about it.

mrspaz ,

Please don’t construe my comment here as a defense of the company; I’m only providing some context here regarding how he may have been hired.

If you’ve never worked near or in an industry like this, you may not be familiar with “cattle call” hiring. There’s basically a standing advert from the company for work at the plant: Show up Monday morning at 05:00 and you can be working the same day if they hire you in. Typically there’s a group of 10, 20, or maybe more lined up for a job. Everyone is told to bring a photo ID and a social security card.

The kid in the article looks slight, but at 16 he was probably close enough to adult proportions to look like he could do the work. He’d line up with everyone else in front of a table and eventually have his turn to talk to the manager / hiring officer. They’d take his ID and SS card and write down the info, and ask the required questions for the I9 form, likely filling it out for him and signing off as translator / preparer assistance. Then they hand back the credentials and he waits off to the side.

Once they have enough applicants to fill however many positions they need, they send the remainder home. Everyone is given a timeclock ID number. Anyone working the day shift is taken immediately to the plant, handed PPE and tools, and put to work. Second and third shifts are sent home and told to come back in the afternoon or at midnight.

And that’s it. That’s the extent of the contact during the hiring process. At the end of the week there’s a check waiting for you at the plant office. Next Monday the company repeats the process to fill positions for people that didn’t show or quit during the week.

The company has 3 days to submit the I9 form, and if it comes back invalid they must terminate employment. But with stolen identities they likely clear and that’s the end of any scrutiny. If you asked that hiring manager on Tuesday to pick out someone he hired Monday morning, he probably couldn’t do it.

TowardsTheFuture ,

That probably is what happened, and while that’d be understandable like 40 years ago, we have quite a bit of technology today that should be available to prevent that and it should be on the company to ensure they’re not hiring people using stolen identities.

mrspaz ,

I agree, it seems to me that there could be some simple improvements to at least flag suspicious requests. The comment from @kautau would seem to indicate that a simple address cross-reference when the I9 is submitted could help indicate bogus applications.

BigMacHole ,

Didn’t Republican controlled Save The Children states make this type of Child Labor LEGAL?

girlfreddy , (edited )

More than 800 child labor investigations in 47 states are ongoing across industries, according to the agency.

So when do the feds say enough is enough and implement severe penalties for all involved; ie: all profits the companies made x number of children working, charges/jail time for those who approved the kids to work? Cause whatever they are doing now obviously isn’t enough.

cbarrick ,

That would require an act of Congress to implement nationwide.

And Congress hasn’t accomplished anything since 2010.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It’s more likely that they’ll pass a law rescinding child labor laws and legalizing these practices.

hydrospanner ,

Then they’ll go home to their constituents and brag about how they: created jobs, reduced the price of chicken for families, and increased profits for chicken farmers.

It’s a win-win-win, never mind the dead brown children.

Mirshe ,

Oh not just the brown kids. Republicans are also totally OK with sacrificing poor white kids.

boomzilla ,

I saw it in the evening news show of a main TV channel (Das Erste) here in germany that Gov. Huckabee of Arkansas introduced a law to roll back child labour laws, which seems a few other of the GOP reigned, god fearing states also like.

Where several parts of Iowas new law are violating federal child labour laws (e.g. Hazardous Occupations Orders) and that’s why those states are under federal investigation.

From Europe, I hope your gov keeps the promise of cracking down on migrant child labour in hazardous environment and other trends to return to pre-industrial times (e.g. caregivers who exploit the child labour) and offers those kids better possibilities. Those voters in Iowa, Nebraska and the likes are lost anyway.

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

CHIP act, the Inflation Reduction Act, etc. Congress can 100% pass shit if most of the obstructionists are not in control.

JoBo ,

When are they going to make sure that all families have enough money to live on so that the children do not need to work?

jackoneill ,

Right?!? Let’s solve the actual problem not criminalize the symptoms further when already criminalizing the symptoms doesn’t work

girlfreddy , (edited )

But, and hear me out here, I’d like to see every employee (involved in the hiring or management) of ALL the companies involved pay a price for employing children in the first place.

That’s not saying that a UBI shouldn’t be enacted as well. I want both done.

afraid_of_zombies ,

Never. Things are getting worse out there and this is what families are going to do to survive.

All we have to do to fix these problems is pass national universal healthcare, raise the minimum wage, and start building housing as fast as possible. Given that we are not going to do any of those things more and more families are going to send their children into the labor force.

rockSlayer ,

Alternatively, we can look to the past and see how the labor movement pressured the government to ban child labor in the first place.

highenergyphysics ,

I think the greatest irony are the redneck ancestors of current conservatives, who even then were not known for being nice people, looking down with disgust as they grovel for scraps at the feet of con men from the city.

These were real country folk who were willing to literally die for fair wages. Now they just gargle, swallow, and ask for seconds.

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