Wisconsin industrial cleaning company is accused of illegal exploitation of working childrenincluding one, who was 13 years old, cleaning meat processing plants in Minnesota and Nebraska.
According civil lawsuit filed by the US Department of Labor in the U.S. District Court of Nebraska, Packers Sanitation Services Inc. employed more than 30 children aged 13 to 17 as cleaners at JBS USA’s meat processing plants in Grand Island, Nebraska and Worthington, Minnesota, and at Turkey Valley Farms, Marshall, Minnesota. Federal labor law prohibits the use of workers under the age of 18 for killing floors or on mechanized processing equipment because the work is federally named “dangerous occupation.”
The company is charged with violating federal labor law by hiring at least one employee under the age of 14 to clean a slaughterhouse and packing meat, employing children under the age of 15 to work night shifts during the school year, and hiring employees under the age of 18 to work killing the floor and cleaning of electrically powered machines.
The Department of Labor said several juvenile PSSI workers were injured at work, including a 13-year-old who was scalded by harsh cleaners.
PSSI is based in Kieler, Wisconsin. The company describes itself as “a leading provider of food safety solutions”. According to its website, PSSI employs 17,000 people to provide cleaning and other services to more than 700 food processing plants.
In a statement, PSSI said it had “a total ban on hiring people under the age of 18 and zero tolerance for any breach of this policy – period.”
The company suggested that underage workers may have misrepresented their age in order to get employment.
“PSSI has industry-leading, best-in-class procedures to validate its employees’ identity – including mandatory use of the government’s E-verification system for new employees, as well as extensive training, document verification, biometric data and multiple layers of auditing,” the company said . “While dishonest persons may, of course, try to engage in fraud or identity theft, we are confident in our company’s strict compliance policy and will vigorously defend ourselves against such claims.”
The company said it has cooperated with investigators and will continue to do so.
However, on Thursday, a federal judge approved a temporary restraining order prohibiting the PSSI from hiring people under the age of 18 in unsafe roles and ordering the company to keep records and not interfere with investigators or try to influence employees not to cooperate with the Department of Labor investigators.
In its request for a restraining order, the Department of Labor stated that PSSI employees intimidated underage workers to discourage them from cooperating with investigators, and that at least one employee had deleted or manipulated employment records.
“Abusing children, exposing them to dangers in the workplace – and interfering with a federal investigation – shows a blatant disregard by Packers Sanitation Services Inc. the rights and well-being of young workers, ”said Michael Lazzeri, regional administrator for the Department of Labor, Wages and Hours, in a statement.
The investigation began in late August after hints that the PSSI was breaking child labor law. According to court documents, investigators executed the warrants at three sites, the local PSSI offices that serve them, and the PSSI headquarters in Wisconsin.
Department of Labor spokesman Scott Allen said the department’s investigation has since expanded beyond three plants.
“The investigation is now nationwide,” Allen said.
In a statement, Colorado-based JBS USA said it is launching its own “independent third party audit on all of our facilities to carefully assess the situation.”
“We take seriously the allegations against PSSI which, if true, constitute a clear violation of our ethics policy,” the company said.
Contact Karl Ebert at kebert@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @karlwebert.
