An employer walked with virtually no consequences for a meat grinder incident involving a minor.
“A Michigan judge ordered a meat company to pay just $1,143 after a 17-year-old employee lost his hand in one of the business’ grinding machines.
US Guys Processing owner Darin Wilbur — who pleaded guilty to employing a minor in hazardous work without proper work permits — received no jail time or probation to accompany the paltry sum. That financial penalty included a fine of $500 fine, a $500 cost, and fees totaling $143, according to WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Ionia County Judge Ray Voet acknowledged the victim’s injury was ‘horrible,’ but said the young worker was two weeks short of his 18th birthday, which nearly made him an adult at the time of the mishap.
‘Ionia County is a farming county, and I know a lot of people in this county view children working, sometimes around dangerous machinery, as part of growing up,’ Voet said.”
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