Food safety firm hired children, US officials say

One of the largest food sanitation companies in the United States illegally employed at least 102 children in dangerous jobs cleaning meatpacking and slaughtering plants, the Labor Department said.

The company, Packers Sanitation Services Inc., paid a $1.5 million penalty, the department said last week, after an investigation found that children ages 13 to 17 had worked overnight shifts at 13 meat processing plants in eight states, mostly in the South and the Midwest.

The department said the children had used hazardous chemicals to clean processing equipment, including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters.

Its investigators learned that at least three minors had been injured while working for the company, the department said.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Packers was fined $15,138 for each illegally employed child — the maximum civil monetary penalty allowed under federal law.

Packers, which is based in Kieler, Wisconsin, employs more than 16,500 workers and provides contract work at hundreds of slaughtering and meatpacking plants nationwide, according to its website.

The children it hired had worked at plants operated by major meat companies, including Tyson Foods, according to the Labor Department.

In a statement, Packers said: “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. As soon as we became aware of the DOL’s allegations, we conducted multiple additional audits of our employee base, and hired a third-party law firm to review and help further strengthen our policies in this area.”