According to recent reports, the Department of Labor has filed a nationwide temporary restraining order and restraining order against a Tennessee company for employing minors on night shifts at slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants. issued. Submission to court.
On Wednesday, dollar Fayette Janitorial Services LLC, a commercial cleaning services provider, performs cleaning and equipment cleaning of spaces and equipment during night shifts to fulfill sanitation contracts at the Perdue Farms plant in Accomack, Virginia, and Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC, Virginia. He claimed he had “illegally” hired children to disinfect the area. Sioux City. ”
The agency noted that the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits minors from working in “hazardous occupations, including most jobs in meat and poultry slaughter, processing, rendering, and packing facilities.”
The company contracted with 15 children up to age 13 in Virginia, according to the department’s court filing. He allegedly hired at least nine minors to work night sanitation shifts in Iowa.
An investigation conducted by the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division found that the company’s underage workers were employed at the Iowa plant to “clean power-driven machinery such as meat and bone cutting saws, head splitters, jaw pullers, and skinners.” It turned out that
Children employed at the Virginia facility were also tasked with cleaning electrically powered meat processing machines, according to court filings. The department reported in 2022 that a 14-year-old child at the facility “suffered serious injuries while employed by Fayette.” The child “reached into the machine in an attempt to remove the debris,” causing damage to the machine, according to the filing. child’s forearm. The minor suffered “massive blood loss and severe lacerations.”
“Someone from the health office at the Purdue facility called 911 to report an injury to Minor J. The dispatcher asked Minor J’s age. The caller responded, “Uh-huh.” “When the phone was reconnected 30 seconds later, the dispatcher again asked the injured employee’s age and was told that Minor Child J was 19 years old,” the court said. This is stated in the documents submitted to.
Additionally, the boy was hospitalized for 12 days, missed a month of school, and underwent “three surgeries, including a large skin graft from his thigh to his arm, and six months of physical therapy before he could move his arm again.” He added that he needed “therapy.”
Labor lawyer Seema Nanda accused the company of committing “serious violations” of labor laws.
said a spokesperson for Fayette Janitorial LLC. Daily Caller News Foundation The company has a policy of “zero tolerance of underage workers in the workforce.” A spokesperson said the company is “fully cooperating and complying with the Department of Labor’s ongoing investigation into events that occurred over the past several years.”
“We have continued to work diligently to ensure that this never happens. Fayette is committed to enhancing our hiring protocols, including biometric technology to aid the employee process and new employee onboarding. Fayette Janitorial has made significant procedural improvements and enhancements over the past two years. We have added third-party legal representation to assist in vetting our CEO and employees. “We adhere to all guidelines and are committed to providing lawful and ethical employment and a safe and secure working environment at all times,” a spokesperson told DCNF.
Blaze News previously reported that the DOL has opened an investigation into Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms for allegedly illegally contracting immigrant children to work in dangerous positions at slaughter and meat-packing facilities. Ta.
In September, new york times Published an exposé about a 14-year-old immigrant child whose arm was amputated while working at a facility in Virginia. The report said the child submitted false documents claiming to be in his 20s. According to the Times, the Purdue plant was “filled with immigrant children working in violation of child labor laws.”
“We are appalled by these recent allegations because they do not represent who we are as a company or what we stand for,” Perdue said in a September memo. Ta. statement.
At the time, both Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods said they had not been notified of the pending investigation by the DOL.Tyson Foods previously declined a request for comment. NPR.
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