Labor Department puts spotlight on child labor in slaughterhouses with 3 settlements this week

OMAHA, Neb. — The problem of kids working in dangerous slaughterhouses continues to be a concern as the Labor Department announced its third agreement this week with a company in the industry agreeing to pay a penalty and reform its practices to help ensure it won't hire underage workers again.

On Thursday, the Department said investigators found that another slaughterhouse cleaning company called QSI had employed 54 children at 13 meatpacking plants in eight states on overnight shifts sanitizing the industrial carving and slicing machines companies use to produce beef and chicken between 2021 and 2024. This is at least the fourth example of one of these cleaning contractors being caught employing kids in the last two-and-a-half years. QSI will pay a $400,000 penalty.

QSI disputes the way the Department describes the problem and points out that investigators weren't able to find any current juvenile workers and didn't require a formal court agreement with ongoing monitoring like they did a couple years ago with the most egregious offender: the PSSI cleaning company that ultimately paid more than $1.5 million and agreed to changes.

Earlier this week, Perdue Farms agreed to pay $4 million after children were found working at one of its chicken processing plants in Virginia. One day earlier, meatpacking giant JBS Foods also agreed to pay $4 million and make changes to try to keep kids from getting jobs at its plants.

All three of these announcements come just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, but they follow a number of other child labor investigations in the meatpacking industry in the past few years. To Debbie Berkowitz, who was a top OSHA official in the Obama administration, the flurry of announcements this week helps solidify the Biden administration's legacy of trying to ''stamp out child labor in this very dangerous meat and poultry industry'' while putting the new administration on notice.

''You're just going to have to keep an eye on whether this administration decides to make a total U-turn and say, it's okay for children to be exploited in these dangerous industries and get injured and die and have their futures robbed,'' said Berkowitz, who is now a fellow at Georgetown University focused on labor issues.

What's the problem?

That PSSI case got started after one 13-year-old suffered a serious chemical burn from the caustic chemicals used to clean the JBS plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, every night. But then investigators found more and more examples of PSSI employing children.

That prompted additional investigations and a broad call for the meatpacking industry to tighten up its hiring practices to make sure kids don't get hired. Sometimes the major meat companies, like JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and Smithfield Foods, have pointed to contractors as the ones with hiring problems, but officials maintain that the big companies are responsible for all their contractors taking appropriate precautions.

''The Department of Labor is determined to stop our nation's children from being endangered in jobs for which they should never be hired and to leverage our enforcement work to affect industries,'' said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda.

Some of the settlements included a Mississippi processing plant, Mar-Jac Poultry, that paid a $165,000 penalty following the death of a 16-year-old boy. In May 2023, a Tennessee-based sanitation company, Fayette Janitorial Service LLC, agreed to pay nearly $650,000 in civil penalties after a federal investigation found it illegally hired at least two dozen children to clean dangerous meat processing facilities in Iowa and Virginia.

In addition to the federal investigations some states got involved. Last fall, Smithfield Foods, one of the nation's largest meat processors, agreed to pay $2 million to resolve allegations of child labor violations at a plant in Minnesota,

The Labor Department said that QSI, which is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as part of a company called the Vincit Group, employed children on overnight shifts at 13 meat processing plants in Collinsville, Alabama; Livingston, California; Harbeson and Georgetown, Delaware; Milford, Indiana; Ottumwa, Iowa; Canton and Winesburg, Ohio; Shelbyville and Morristown, Tennessee; and Temperanceville, Virginia. The Department didn't name the companies that own those plants

QSI spokesman Dan Scorpio said he doesn't believe that's accurate because investigators didn't provide details of the violations the company could verify. ''QSI has a zero-tolerance policy for any employment of underage workers,'' he said. "We have taken extensive steps over the last two and a half years to strengthen our hiring and compliance practices as we continue to serve our customers with integrity and excellence.''

Perdue was employing children at a Virginia plant using dangerous knives and other tools to slaughter chicken.

The JBS agreement didn't include a finding that children were working directly for that company, but there have been examples at its plants.

''The Department of Labor has made clear that too often, companies look the other way and claim that their staffing agency, or their subcontractor or supplier is responsible. But everyone has a responsibility to keep children — our most vulnerable workers — safe,'' the Department said.

The Labor Department has more than 1,000 open child labor investigations it is pursuing. And every one of these settlements includes a set of standards for hiring practices that the Labor Department believes will help keep kids from getting hired.

That includes steps like training all managers about how to spot underage applicants and avoid hiring them. False identification documents continue to be a problem. Companies are also expected to require all of their subcontractors to take precautions.

Companies are also expected to set up hotlines where people can report any child labor concerns. And the Labor Department expects them to maintain accurate records of all their employees including their birth dates and work they do.

And companies should discipline anyone who does hire children in violation of labor laws.

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