US company accused of illegally hiring children to clean meat processing plants
U.S. authorities have accused another sanitation company of illegally hiring at least two dozen children to clean dangerous meat processing facilities
DES MOINES, Iowa — U.S. authorities have accused another sanitation company of illegally hiring at least two dozen children to clean dangerous meat processing facilities, the latest example of the illegal child labor that officials say is increasingly common.
The Labor Department asked a federal judge for an injunction to halt the employment of minors by Tennessee-based Fayette Janitorial Service LLC, saying it believes at least four children were still working at one Iowa slaughterhouse as of Dec. 12.
U.S. law prohibits companies from employing people younger than 18 to work in meat processing plants because of the hazards involved. The Labor Department alleges that Fayette has used underage workers in hazardous conditions where animals are killed and rendered. The agency says children sanitize dangerous equipment, including head splitters, jaw pullers and meat bandsaws.
The department's legal filing details the severe injuries one 14-year-old sustained while cleaning the drumstick packing line belt at a plant in Virginia. Records show Fayette learned the worker was underage after the child was injured and continued to employ the minor anyway, according to an investigator.
The Associated Press left phone and email messages seeking comment from Fayette.
The latest findings add to a growing list of violations, including the fatal mangling of a 16-year-old working at a Mississippi poultry plant, the death of a 16-year-old after an accident at a sawmill in Wisconsin, and last year’s report of more than 100 children illegally employed by Packers Sanitation Services Inc., or
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