Perdue and Tyson Under Federal Investigation Over Child Labor

livemint.com:

The Labor Department said it is investigating plants operated by poultry giants Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods following a report that some of the companies’ contractors employed migrant children to clean meat-processing plants. The New York Times magazine last week published an article that said migrant children were working overnight shifts at some of the companies’ plants. Perdue and Tyson said they would cooperate with any federal investigation.

The companies said they didn’t know that children were working in their plants, which outsource cleaning to sanitation firms. The Labor Department confirmed that it is investigating a Tyson plant and a separate Perdue plant, both in Virginia. The agency could try to hold these companies liable for the labor practices of their contractors.

“There is quite a lot of precedent" for holding companies accountable for their contractors’ labor violations under a principle called joint employment, said David Weil, the former administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division in the Obama administration. In that role, Weil pushed for greater oversight and enforcement of laws related to employers outsourcing work to third parties. Perdue hasn’t been notified of an investigation but plans to comply with any government inquiries, a company spokesperson said.

Perdue has longstanding policies in place to prevent minors from working hazardous jobs in violation of the law. “We hold our suppliers to the same high standards," the company said, adding that it is auditing its child-labor prevention and protection processes as well as those of its contractors. Tyson representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment.