Bumble Bee to pay $6 million for gruesome worker death

Attorneys for tuna manufacturer Bumble Bee Foods agreed to pay $6 million in fines and restitution related to the death of an employee who was burned alive inside an industrial oven at the company’s Santa Fe Springs plant, officials said Wednesday. Coworkers were unaware that Melena was inside the pressurized steam cooker when they loaded 12,000 pounds of tuna, inadvertently trapping him at the back of the oven.

About $750,000 will go to the district attorney’s Environmental Enforcement Fund, and about the same amount will cover fines, penalties and court costs, the Times reports.

As part of the settlement, Bumble Bee must also spend $3 million replacing all its outdated ovens with new, automated ones that would never require a worker to step foot inside. If Rodriguez complies with the agreed upon conditions, in 18 months he will be allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor at sentencing.

Angel Rodriguez of Riverside, the company’s director of plant operations, additionally greed to perform 320 hours of community service, pay approximately $11,400 in fines and penalties, and take classes on safety rules.

Melena, 62, had been loading pallets of canned tuna into 35-foot-long ovens at the company’s Santa Fe Springs plant before dawn October. 11, 2012.

Co-defendant Saul Florez of Whittier, Bumble Bee’s former safety manager, pleaded guilty today to a felony count of willfully violating lockout tagout rules and proximately causing the victim’s death. During the two-hour process to cook and sterilize the cans, temperatures inside the oven reached 270 degrees fahrenheit, essentially baking Melena to death.

Prosecutors also charged two managers with three counts of violating OSHA rules, which led to Melena’s death.

Under the agreement, Bumble Bee will be plead guilty to a misdemeanor of willfully failing to have an effective safety program in January 2017 if it completes several safety measures that include upgrading ovens so workers don’t get trapped inside and providing worker training. He was also ordered to serve three years on probation. Florez will be eligible to have his felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor if found in compliance with the terms and conditions of his plea agreement in 18 months, District Attorney’s officials said.

Melena’s family, in a statement released shortly after the settlement was announced in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, thanked the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, criminal investigator Brian Baudendistel and Chun “for ensuring that safe work practices are implemented at Bumble Bee to make it a safe work environment for the employees that work hard to provide to their families”.