Dive Brief:
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The U.S. Department of Labor is taking action against a Tennessee-based company for employing at least two dozen children as young as 13 to clean slaughterhouses for meatpackers including Perdue Farms.
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The agency on Wednesday filed claims with a federal court in Iowa to prevent Fayette Janitorial Service LLC from illegally employing children at meat and poultry processing plants. It is seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction against Fayette while it continues to investigate the full extent of the company’s labor practices.
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According to court documents, Fayette allegedly employed 15 children in Virginia and at least nine children in Iowa to work overnight sanitation shifts to fulfill contracts with Perdue Farms and Seaboard Triumph Foods. At least one 14-year-old boy has suffered severe injuries on the job.
Dive Insight:
This move from the Labor Department is part of a nationwide crackdown against child labor. Agriculture and manufacturing are some of the largest industries under current investigation for employing or contracting with companies that utilize child labor.
Fayette and its alleged illegal labor practices came to light following a New York Times Magazine expose, which highlighted the issue of companies hiring migrant children separated from their families to do dangerous jobs. The company does business in 30 states and has more than 600 workers.
In the Labor Department’s court filing, the agency said “minors were used to clean dangerous kill floor equipment” such as head splitters, jaw pullers, meat bandsaws and neck clippers at processing plants.
“The employment of children in hazardous occupations is an egregious violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act that should never occur,” Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda said in a statement. “The Department of Labor continues to use every available legal resource to protect workers and end child labor violations.”
In fiscal year 2023, federal investigators identified child labor violations in 955 cases and issued more than $8 million in penalties to various employers.
Investigators have found children working for the cleaning contractor at two processing plants so far, including a Perdue Farms facility in Accomac, Virginia, and a Seaboard Triumph Foods location in Sioux City, Iowa.
The Labor Department’s investigations into Fayette are ongoing.
