WPBN: Federal investigators discovered 11 youngsters working a “dangerous” midnight shift at a meat processing plant in Iowa, leading to a $171,000 fine for the cleaning business.
The minors were discovered working at the Seaboard Triumph Foods pork facility in Sioux City, Iowa, for the sanitation company Qvest LLC, according to a statement from the U.S. Labor Department.
The kids were hired to “use corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment at the Seaboard Triumph Foods facility from at least September 2019 through September 2023,” according to the statement.
Anyone under the age of eighteen is prohibited from working in the meat processing industry by U.S. law. In the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, Qvest was ordered to pay the fee and refrain from “oppressive child labor,” according to a court document.
Seaboard Triumph Foods denied any wrongdoing, stated that it does not condone the employment of child labor by any vendor, and “had no evidence that under individuals accessed the plant.”
It also mentioned that it hasn’t used Qvest’s services in over a year.
Additionally, Qvest needs to set up a procedure for whistleblowers to report the unlawful hiring of minors, including a toll-free hotline, and engage a third-party company to assess its policy on underage employment within ninety days.
In May, Fayette Janitorial Services LLC agreed to pay about $650,000 for utilizing over two dozen children at the Sioux City factory and at a Perdue Farms facility in Virginia. This is the second time a contractor has been found to be exploiting children at the same business.
Following the May probe, Seaboard and Perdue Farms both terminated their contracts with Fayette, which said in May that it no longer hires minors.
“These findings illustrate Seaboard Triumph Foods’ history of children working illegally in their Sioux City facility since at least September 2019. Despite changing sanitation contractors, children continued to work in dangerous occupations at this facility,” Michael Lazzeri, wage and hour Midwest regional administrator stated.
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“This situation underscores the problems facing employers throughout the country: individuals, including minors, obtaining jobs through their use of fraudulent identification documents, which are sophisticated enough to fool even the federal government’s E-Verify system,” he stated.
