The federal agency that regulates workplace safety fined chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride $26,988 for hazards found after a worker died in an accident in January at a plant in north Alabama.
On July 1, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued findings of two serious violations at the processing plant in Guntersville.
Inspectors found that a mechanical lift had no safety device to prevent falls and had been used to move loads heavier than the rated amount. Overloading of the lift also exposed workers to potential crushing hazards, they found.
Gabriel “Seth” Brutley, 35, died Jan. 6 after he fell from a lift designed to move materials. A lawsuit filed on behalf of his children alleges that a supervisor removed a safety device from the lift before Brutley’s fatal fall. The wrongful death lawsuit says negligence by Pilgrim’s Pride led to the accident that killed Brutley.
Pilgrim’s Pride and others named in the suit denied any wrongdoing. In answers to the lawsuit, they said Brutley failed to exercise caution in the performance of his job.
Brutley’s death followed several serious but non-fatal accidents at the Guntersville plant since 2016. Pilgrim’s Pride has been fined in 2016 and 2019 for other workplace hazards at the plant, including a machinery malfunction that amputated the tip of one worker’s finger and an ammonia leak.
The company has 15 days after citations are issued to respond to OSHA’s findings and dispute the fines.
