The Biden administration has urged meat companies to address the issue of child labor.
Specifically, the U.S. Labor Department has issued a reminder to meat plant companies across the nation to ensure that they are not engaging in the illegal employment of children for hazardous tasks.
In a letter sent by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday, the 18 leading meat and poultry producers were encouraged to scrutinize their own hiring policies as well as those of their suppliers.
Rampant Child Labor Cases in the Meat Industry
According to the Associated Press, the request for action comes in response to a probe that discovered over 100 children working through the night for a company that cleans slaughterhouses, performing perilous tasks such as operating skull splitters and razor-sharp bone saws.
The government's effort to crack down on child labor includes the recent call to meat companies to address the issue.
According to the Labor Department, there has been a 69% surge in the illegal employment of minors in the United States since 2018.
Vilsack affirmed that the usage of illegal child labor, particularly when it involves dangerous work, is unacceptable, and firms must consider their legal and ethical obligations to ensure full compliance with child labor laws by themselves, their suppliers, subcontractors, and vendors.
The Labor Department has over 600 ongoing child labor investigations, and officials are worried about the exploitation of minors, particularly migrant children who might not have a parent in the United States.
As reported by NBC, the labor department is focusing on child labor as it introduces new measures to combat exploitation in U.S. companies.
According to the Department of Labor, there was a considerable increase in the number of minors working illegally for U.S. companies last year.
The Biden Administration has launched a new set of programs aimed at investigating employers who violate child labor laws and providing better assistance for migrant children who are placed with sponsors in the United States.
This includes the creation of a joint task force between the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for child migrants, which will aid in curbing the increase in the illegal exploitation of migrant children for labor in the United States.
U.S. Labor Department Fined a Hefty Price Tag
The Labor Department of the United States is aware of the escalating rate of child labor in the country following a series of inquiries.
Besides handling dangerous tools, young teenagers working in meat plants have been discovered doing hazardous tasks, like cleaning meat processing machinery with harmful chemicals.
The previous report from USA Today revealed that Packers Sanitation Services Inc., based in Wisconsin, recently paid a fine of $1.5 million in February.
This fine was imposed by the labor department after finding that the company had employed 102 minors between the ages of 13 and 17 in hazardous jobs at 13 meat processing sites in eight states.
According to the investigation, most of the minors were working at two JBS Foods plants in Minnesota and Nebraska as well as a Cargill Inc. facility in Kansas.
The company paid the $1.5 million fine on Feb. 16, bringing to a close an inquiry that began in August and led to two court orders from a federal judge in the previous year.
The labor department reported that some underage workers were also working overnight shifts, and at least three had been injured while on the job.
This recent letter sent by the Agriculture Secretary and the continuous crackdown of the Labor Department highlight their continuous commitments to making sure that there will be no children exploited while working in these companies.
