(The Center Square) – More than 100 children have been illegally employed by a Kieler, Wisconsin-based sanitation company contracted to provide services to slaughtering and meat packing plants in eight states, the Department of Labor announced Friday.
The announcement comes months after the DOL sued the company last fall alleging it employed minors who only spoke Spanish. This prompted another federal investigation into how many employed minors were foreign nationals smuggled into the U.S.
Last August, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (DOL WHD) launched an investigation into Packers Sanitation Services Inc. LTD, one of the largest providers of food safety sanitation services in America. The DOL says PSSI was employing minors to work in hazardous occupations at slaughter and meat processing plants in the Midwest, violating the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
By November, DOL WHD investigators found that PSSI had employed at least 31 children between the ages of 13 and 17 in hazardous occupations tasked with cleaning dangerous powered equipment during overnight shifts at two JBS USA plants in Grand Island, Nebraska, and Worthington, Minnesota, and at Turkey Valley Farms in Marshall, Minnesota.
By December, DOL sued PSSI and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, with which PSSI complied. As DOL’s investigation continued, WHD investigators identified at least 50 minors employed at two additional meat-processing locations.
By February 2022, investigators found at least 102 minors between the ages of 13 and 17 working night shifts at 13 facilities in eight states, using “hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters,” the DOL said. At least three were injured while doing so.
The DOL fined PSSI the maximum civil money penalty of $15,138 for each FLSA violation, totaling $1.5 million.
Last December, the U.S. District Court of Nebraska entered a consent order and judgment, with which PSSI complied, performing “multiple additional audits of our employee base,” it said. Among other measures it had taken, it hired an external law firm to review its policies.
In a statement, it said it was “pleased to have finalized this settlement figure” with DOL and it wasn’t employing any minors. “We have been crystal clear from the start: Our company has a zero-tolerance policy against employing anyone under the age of 18 and fully shares the DOL’s objective of ensuring full compliance at all locations,” it said.
However, according to the DOL’s lawsuit, PSSI managers/supervisors “attempted to thwart or tamper the collection of evidence in multiple ways,” “attempted to obstruct employee interviews,” and “appeared to try and hide or delete documents.”
“Our investigation found Packers Sanitation Services’ systems flagged some young workers as minors, but the company ignored the flags. When the Wage and Hour Division arrived with warrants, the adults – who had recruited, hired and supervised these children – tried to derail our efforts to investigate their employment practices,” DOL WHD Regional Administrator Michael Lazzeri said.
According to the DOL lawsuit, investigators “conducted all interviews in Spanish, with Spanish-speaking investigators, as the minor children spoke Spanish.”
This prompted some to ask if the minors entered the U.S. illegally, and if so, if they were working to pay Mexican cartels what they owed for facilitating their illegal entry into the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed to NBC News that federal investigators were looking into how many minor employees were victims of labor trafficking. Homeland Security Investigations agents interviewed minors employed by PSSI who worked at a JBS Foods slaughterhouse in Grand Island, Nebraska, officials told NBC News. Due to its ongoing investigation, HSI won’t provide additional comment.
According to court filings, PSSI claimed “rogue individuals” gave the company fake identification for each minor employee, including Social Security numbers verified through the federal government’s E-Verify system.
The 13 meat processing plants fined for employing minors include Cargill Inc. (Dodge City, KS/Fiona, TX); George’s Inc. (Batesville, AR); Gibbon Packing Co. and Greater Omaha Packing Co. Inc. in Gibbon and Omaha, Nebraska; JBS Foods (Greeley, CO/Grand Island, NE/Worthington, MN); Maple Leaf Farms Inc. (Milford, IN); Buckhead Meat of Minnesota and Turkey Valley Farms in St. Cloud and Marshall, Minnesota; Tyson Food Inc. (Green Forest, AR/Goodlettsville, TN).
