A tuna company has been forced to pay a record $6 million in damages after cooking an employee to death inside an oven.

Jose Melena was a cleaner at Bumble Bee Foods in 2012 when some of his co-workers unwittingly locked him inside the 35 foot cylindrical pressure cooker he was cleaning.

The workers loaded over 5,000 kilograms of tuna into the oven and turned it on without realising Mr Melena was in the back.

Bumble Bee foods has been dealt the record damages. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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A preliminary investigation found that Mr Melena had died inside.

“This is the worst circumstances of death I have ever, ever witnessed,” Deputy District Attorney Hoon Chun said, according to the Associated Press.

“I think any person would prefer to be – if they had to die some way – would prefer to be shot or stabbed than to be slowly cooked in an oven.”

Much of the settlement will go towards ensuring no cleaner will ever have to climb inside the oven again, reported The Telegraph.

Mr Melena’s family will receive $1.5 million from the settlement, the largest work place violation ever awarded for a single worker in California.

“Certainly, nothing will bring back our dad, and our mom will not have her husband back, but much can be done to ensure this terrible accident does not happen again,” the Melena family said in a statement.

Mr Melena had worked for six years at the factory.

As part of the settlement, both Bumble Bee Foods and the company’s former safety manager will have to make a public apology, conceding guilt for the incident.

Two other company employees were also charged for the incident, and ordered to pay fines.