A US company is fined $650,000 for illegally hiring children to clean meat processing plants
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Tennessee-based sanitation company has agreed to pay more than half a million dollars after a federal investigation found it illegally hired at least two dozen children to clean dangerous meat processing facilities in Iowa and Virginia.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced Monday that Fayette Janitorial Service LLC entered into a consent judgment, in which the company agrees to nearly $650,000 in civil penalties and the court-ordered mandate that it no longer employs minors. The February filing indicated federal investigators believed at least four children had still been 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.
The Labor Department alleged that Fayette used 15 underage workers at a Perdue Farms plant in Accomac, Virginia, and at least nine at Seaboard Triumph Foods in Sioux City, Iowa. The work included sanitizing dangerous equipment like head splitters, jaw pullers and meat bandsaws in hazardous conditions where animals are killed and rendered.
Related articles
Unai Emery signs new contract at Aston Villa until 2029
BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Unai Emery signed a new contract with Aston Villa on Monday that keeps hi2024-05-29One in critical condition after e
File photo. Photo: 123RF2024-05-29Better funding could prevent more drownings
Surf Life Saving staff on a rescue raft. Photo: supplied / Surf Life Saving New Zealand2024-05-29Israel reined in by International Court of Justice rulings on Gaza
By Paul Adams, BBC Diplomatic CorrespondentSouth African professor of International Law John Dugard2024-05-29US company rejects Mexico's criticism, buy
MEXICO CITY (AP) — An American quarry company on Monday rejected the Mexican president’s campaign of2024-05-29China's population drops for 2nd year, with record low birth rate
By Farah Master for ReutersChina's population decline accelerated in 2023, official data shows, exte2024-05-29
atest comment