FEBRUARY 18, 2023:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Department of Labor says one of the country’s largest cleaning services for food processing companies employed more than 100 children in dangerous jobs at 13 meatpacking plants across the country. The agency said Friday (Feb. 17, 2023) that Wisconsin-based Packer Sanitation Services Inc. has paid over $1.5 million in civil penalties. At least three of those minors were injured on the job, burned by caustic cleaning chemicals at the JBS plant in Grand Island, Nebraska. The 13 plants were in Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas. The agency says it’s seen about a 50% increase in child labor violations since 2018.
DECEMBER 7, 2022:
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge ordered a Wisconsin company that cleans hundreds of slaughterhouses nationwide to ensure it is complying with child labor laws after investigators identified at least 50 minors scrubbing and sanitizing dangerous equipment at five different meatpacking plants in Nebraska, Minnesota and Arkansas. Packers Sanitation Services Inc. also entered into an agreement with the Labor Department that was announced Tuesday (Dec. 6, 2022). As part of that, the company promised to hire an outside consultant to review its hiring policies and provide additional training for its managers. Investigators are still in the early stages of reviewing thousands of pages of records from other plants. The company employs some 17,000 people working at more than 700 locations nationwide.
NOVEMBER 22, 2022:
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Wisconsin company that cleans hundreds of meatpacking plants nationwide is defending itself against allegations that it employed more than two dozen minors working overnight shifts cleaning massive saws and other dangerous equipment. Labor Department officials said in court documents that they believe Packers Sanitation Services Inc. might be employing underage workers at other plants but investigators have only just starting reviewing thousands of pages of employee records at plants besides the ones in Nebraska and Minnesota where they confirmed teenagers were working. A judge already issued a temporary order prohibiting the company from employing minors and interfering in the investigation. The company says it’s cooperating and already prohibits hiring anyone younger than 18.
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