A major US food sanitation company illegally employed hundreds of q3 to 17 years old to clean razor-sharp saws with hazardous chemicals.
An inquiry by the US Department of Labor determined that Packers Sanitation Services paid $1.5 million in civil penalties for hiring children in hazardous jobs and having them work midnight shifts at 13 meat processing factories in eight states.
Kids Cleaned “Razor-Sharp Saws” At Meat Plants
Children were hired by the Kieler, Wisconsin-based company to clean meat processing equipment such as back saws, brisket saws, and head splitters. At least three youngsters were hurt, according to investigators.
The corporation was penalized the maximum civil penalty authorized by federal law for employing minors in violation of the law: $15,138 per employee.
Packers Sanitation has a policy of not hiring anyone under the age of 18, according to a statement made on Friday, and they support the DOL’s efforts to enforce this policy everywhere they do business.
The company stated that none of the minors are now there and that many of them worked there years ago.
As soon as we became aware of the DOL’s accusations, we undertook many additional audits of our staff base and hired a third-party law firm to examine and assist in strengthening our procedures in this area, according to the statement.
We have also provided many additional pieces of training for recruiting supervisors, including instruction on how to identify identity theft. The inquiry of the company’s employees at JBS USA factories in Nebraska and Minnesota began in August of last year.
In November, the US District Court for the District of Nebraska received a complaint stating that Packers Sanitation illegally employed at least 31 juveniles to clean dangerous power equipment. A federal judge imposed a temporary restraining order prohibiting the company from committing more violations of child labor laws.
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Packers Sanitation’s Previous Offenses
In December, Packers agreed to a consent agreement and judgment in which they promised to comply with labor rules. When found guilty of hiring 49 minors at its JBS Foods facilities in Grand Island, Nebraska, and Worthington, Minnesota, the Packers were fined a total of $741,762.
Separately, Packers was punished for hiring 26 minors at operations in Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas, as well as at a Cargill Inc. facility in Dodge City, Kansas.
Jessica Looman, the principal deputy administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, stated, Employers’ failure to take responsibility for preventing child labor breaches is what allowed these children to be employed in meatpacking factories in the first place.
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