Mississippi teen's death in poultry plant shows child labor remains a problem, feds say

abcnews.go.com:

The 16-year-old worker killed in a Mississippi poultry plant earlier this month is the third teenager to die in a workplace accident so far this summer

JACKSON, Miss. — The death of a 16-year-old in a Mississippi poultry plant earlier this month offered another reminder that children remain vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace in the United States, senior Labor Department officials said Wednesday.

Duvan Perez became the third teenager to die in an industrial accident this summer. Those deaths occurred amid a push by lawmakers in some states to loosen child labor regulations in order to meet growing demands for workers, though none of the deaths occurred in states where new laws have been enacted.

Perez was working on a sanitation crew at Mar-Jac Poultry on July 14 when he became entangled in a conveyor belt he was cleaning, according to records obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. Before authorities arrived at the meat processing plant, Perez’s coworkers had tried to extract him from the equipment, which stretched to the plant’s ceiling. Police found the teenager dead, and Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict said in a text message that Perez died from traumatic asphyxia and blunt force trauma.

In a statement, Mar-Jac Poultry blamed an unnamed staffing company for hiring Perez to work at the plant and said Perez’s paperwork appeared to misrepresent his age.

“We are devastated at the loss of life, and deeply regret that an underage individual was hired without our knowledge. The company is undertaking a thorough audit with the staffing companies to ensure that this kind of error never happens again,” the statement said.

Michael Schuls, 16, died in early July after he became entangled in a wood-stacking