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.
Philips will pay $1.1 billion to resolve US lawsuits over breathing machines that expel debris
Texans receiver Tank Dell was among 10 people wounded in shootout at Florida party, sheriff says
Belarus labels German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle ‘extremist,’ bans activities in the country
Elon Musk visits China as Tesla seeks self
Iconic arch used as Iditarod finish line collapses in Alaska
Twins bring Carlos Correa back from IL after 16
Stars and DeBoer moving on after ousting Cup champ Vegas in tight 7
2 hikers drown after falling into creek on Tennessee trail