Investigators find almost a dozen kids working dangerous overnight shifts at a meat processing plant | Law Enforcement Today

SIOUX CITY, IA - The Department of Labor (DOL) said that federal investigators found nearly a dozen children working in dangerous, overnight shifts at Seaboard Triumph Foods's pork processing plant. 

According to CBS News, in a news release that was dispersed on Friday, November 29th, the DOL said that 11 kids allegedly used corrosive cleaners to sanitize head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers, and other equipment at the facility from September 2019 through September 2023. 

The news release said that Qvest LLC must pay $171,919 in child labor civil money penalties, hire a third-party to review and implement company policies to prevent the employment of children in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and establish a process for reporting concerns about the illegal employment of children.

Federal law prohibits minors from working in meat processing plants due to an increased risk of injury. Seaboard Foods is among the nation's largest pork producers. In addition to Iowa, Seaboard Foods, a division of Seaboard Corporation, has operations in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and in Mexico.

Michael Lazzeri, the Midwest regional administrator with the DOL's Wage and Hour Division said in a statement, "These findings illustrate Seaboard Triumph Foods' history of children working illegally in their Sioux City facility since at least September 2019. Despite changing sanitation contractors, children continued to work in dangerous occupations at this facility."

Children under the age of 18 illegally employed in dangerous jobs in meat and poultry slaughtering and processing operations is not unique in the industry or to the Seaboard Foods plant in Sioux Falls. 

Back in September of 2023, Seaboard contracted Fayette Janitorial Services for sanitation work at its facility. After taking over the plant's sanitation services contract, Fayette allegedly rehired some of the children previously employed by Qvest, with the Somerville, Tennessee-based contractor found to be employing nine minors at the Sioux City plant earlier in 2024.

Fayette also allegedly hired 15 children as young as 13 at a Perdue Farms processing plant in Accomac, Virginia, where a 14-year-old was severely injured. Perdue said it terminated its contract with Fayette before the DOL's court filing. This development by the DOL is part of an ongoing investigation into whether migrant kids care cleaning U.S. slaughterhouses.

It also comes less than a year after the government fined another sanitation services provider $1.5 million for employing more than 100 kids, ages 13 to 17 at more than a dozen meat processing plants across eight states.

The DOL launched its investigation after a published report detailed migrant kids working overnight for contractors in poultry processing facilities on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The report detailed when a 14-year-old boy was maimed while cleaning a conveyor belt in a deboning area at a Perdue slaughterhouse in rural Virginia.

The eighth grader was among thousands of Mexican and Central American children who have crossed the border illegally on their own to work in dangerous jobs. It is not only illegal immigrant children tasked with illegal and dangerous work. A 16-year-old high school student was killed last summer after getting trapped in a machine at a Wisconsin sawmill.

From an elevated waterslide at a Jacksonville, Florida, beach to a sawmill in Clarkrange, Tennessee, federal investigators are finding children across the country working illegal hours and performing risky, unlawful tasks. In May, federal investigators found a 13-year-old girl allegedly working up to 60 hours a week on an assembly line in Luverne, Alabama.

The DOL recently found that a Grand Rapids, Michigan, window cleaning company had illegally hired three kids to clean residential windows and gutters, and install Christmas lights. One of the kids required surgery after suffering serious injuries from falling off a roof. Another DOL case resolved in October involved children operating and cleaning a meat grinder and driving motor vehicles to deliver orders for a pizza restaurant in Iron River, Wisconsin.

The DOL said its Wage and Hour Division oversaw 736 investigations uncovering child labor violations affecting 4,030 children in fiscal year 2024.