The Labor Department announced that federal investigators found nearly a dozen children working hazardous overnight shifts at Seaboard Triumph Foods' pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, Iowa.
The DOL said 11 children employed by Guymon of Qwest, an Oklahoma-based sanitation contractor, allegedly worked to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment at the Seaboard Triumph Foods facility from at least September 2019 to September 2023. Typically used corrosive cleaner. in a news release On Friday.
federal law bans Minors are being prevented from working in meat processing due to the increased risk of injury.
Seaboard Foods is one of the nation's largest pork producers. In addition to Iowa, Seaboard Foods, a division of Seaboard Corporation, has operations in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah, and Mexico, according to the company's website.
“These findings demonstrate a history of children working illegally at Seaboard Triumph Foods' Sioux City facility dating back to at least September 2019. Despite changing sanitation contractors, children continued to work in hazardous occupations at this facility, ” Michael Lazzeri, Midwest Regional Administrator of DOL's Wage and Hour Division, said in the release.
Qwest must pay $171,919 in civil monetary penalties for child labor and take steps to prevent the illegal employment of minors again.
Qwest and Seaboard did not respond to requests for comment.
Nevertheless, children under the age of 18 being illegally employed in hazardous jobs in meat and poultry slaughter and processing operations is not unique in the industry or at the Seaboard Foods plant in Sioux Falls.
In September 2023, Seaboard contracted Fayette Janitorial Services for sanitation work at its facility. After taking over the plant's sanitation services contract, Fayette reportedly rehired some of the children previously employed by Quest with the Somerville, Tennessee-based contractor earlier this year. found employed The DOL alleged that there were nine minors at the Sioux Falls plant.
Fayette allegedly employed 15 children under the age of 13 at the Perdue Farms processing plant in Accomack, Virginia, where a 14-year-old child was seriously injured. Purdue terminated its contract with Fayette before the DOL filed its petition in court, the company said.
Are immigrant children cleaning American slaughterhouses?
The development is part of an ongoing investigation into whether migrant children are cleaning US slaughterhouses. Less than a year later, the government fined another sanitation service provider $1.5 million for hiring more than 100 children – Age 13 to 17 years – In 13 meat processing plants in eight states.
The DOL began its investigation after a report was published about migrant children working overnight for contractors in poultry processing facilities on Virginia's Eastern Shore. a new york times magazine Story Last December the children explained in detail how to clean blood, grease and feathers from equipment with acid and pressure pipes.
many times' Account It includes the account of a 14-year-old boy who was maimed while cleaning a conveyor belt in the deboning area at a Purdue slaughterhouse in rural Virginia. The eighth-grade student was among thousands of Mexican and Central American children who crossed the border willingly to work in dangerous jobs.
But it is not just migrant children who are assigned illegal and dangerous work. Michael Schultz, a 16-year-old high school student, died last summer Stuck in a machine at a saw mill in Wisconsin,
from high water slide Jacksonville, Florida, at Beach Park saw machine In Clarkrange, Tennessee, federal investigators are finding children across the country working illegal hours and performing hazardous, illegal tasks. In May, federal investigators found a 13-year-old girl allegedly working up to 60 hours a week an assembly line In Luverne, Alabama.
More recently, DOL found A Grand Rapids, Michigan, window cleaning company illegally hired three children to clean residential windows and gutters and install Christmas lights, one of whom suffered serious injuries after falling from a roof. Later surgery was required. Another DOL case solved Last month the children were involved in running and cleaning a meat grinder and driving a motor vehicle to deliver orders for a pizza restaurant in Iron River, Wisconsin.
DOL's Wage and Hour Division oversaw 736 investigations that uncovered child labor violations affecting 4,030 children in fiscal year 2024, the agency said.
In addition to the federal government, the state of Massachusetts recently took aim at companies violating child labor laws, including an operator of dozens of Burger King franchise locations across the state that allegedly forced minors to work more than legally allowed hours. Cited to schedule for. Separately, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell reached an agreement with a New Jersey-based Popeyes franchise owner in Massachusetts to resolve similar allegations, her office said. said Last week.