Children illegally worked dangerous overnight shifts at a pork processing plant, the feds found

The Labor Department announced that federal investigators found nearly a dozen children doing hazardous work overnight at Seaboard Triumph Foods’ pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, Iowa.

Employed by Oklahoma-based cleaning contractor Quest, the 11 children allegedly cleaned head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other tools at a Seaboard Triumph Foods facility from at least September 2019 through September 2023. used corrosive cleaners, the DOL states in a news release release on Friday.

Federal law Prohibits Preventing minors from working in meat processing because of 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 Corp., operates in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah, and Mexico, according to the company’s website.

“These findings underscore Seaboard Triumph Foods’ history of illegal child labor at its Sioux City facility since at least September 2019. Despite changing cleaning contractors, children continue to perform hazardous occupations at the facility. I continued to work,” Michael Lazziri, Midwest Regional Administrator of DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, said in the release.

Qvest must pay $171,919 in child labor civil monetary penalties and take steps to prevent the illegal hiring of minors again.

Qvest and Seaboard did not return requests for comment.

Still, the illegal employment of children under 18 in dangerous jobs in meat and poultry slaughtering and processing operations is not unique to the industry or to Seaboard Foods’ plant in Sioux Falls.

Seaboard contracted Fayette Janitorial Services for cleaning work at its facility in September 2023. After taking over the plant’s cleaning services contract, Fayette allegedly hired some of the children earlier this year, along with Somerville, a Tennessee-based contractor. Found working. Nine minors at Sioux Falls plant, DOL alleges.

Fayette also allegedly held 15 children as young as 13 at a Purdue Farms processing plant in Accomack, Virginia, where a 14-year-old was seriously injured. Purdue terminated its contract with Fiat prior to the DOL’s court filing, the company said.

Are immigrant children cleaning American slaughterhouses?

The development is part of an investigation into whether immigrant children are cleaning American slaughterhouses. Less than a year after the government fined another cleaning service provider $1.5 million for employing more than 100 children. 13 to 17 years of age – In 13 meat processing plants in eight states.

The DOL began its investigation following a published report that found immigrant children working overnight for contractors at poultry processing facilities on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The New York Times Magazine The story Last December, the children were detailed cleaning blood, grease and feathers from equipment with acid and pressure hoses.

The Times Account It details a 14-year-old boy who was maimed while cleaning a conveyor belt in the deboning area at the Purdue Slaughterhouse in rural Virginia. The eighth-grader was among thousands of children from Mexico and Central America who have crossed the border on their own to work in dangerous jobs.

But it is not only migrant children who are assigned illegal and dangerous work. A 16-year-old high school student, Michael Schulz, died last summer after receiving Stuck in a machine at a Wisconsin sawmill..

from high Water slide Jacksonville, Florida, Beach Park to A saw mill In Clarkrange, Tennessee, federal investigators are finding children across the country working illegal hours and performing dangerous, illegal jobs. In May, federal investigators found a 13-year-old girl allegedly working up to 60 hours a week. An assembly line in Luverne, Alabama

Most recently, the 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 was seriously injured after falling from the roof. Surgery was required after arrival. Another DOL case Solution Last month, a pizza restaurant in Iron River, Wisconsin, involved children operating and cleaning a meat grinder and driving motorized vehicles.

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division oversaw 736 investigations uncovering 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 targeted companies for violating child labor laws, citing the operator of dozens of Burger King franchise locations across the state for allegedly employing legally permitted minors. Was scheduled to work overtime. Separately, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell reached a settlement with a New Jersey-based owner of Popeyes franchises to resolve similar charges in Massachusetts, her office said. described last week