A cleaning company based in Oklahoma has been fined more than $100,000 after it was found that it hired children to work overnight shifts at an Iowa pork processing plant.
Federal investigators found that Qvest Sanitation employed 11 children to clean equipment at a slaughterhouse operated by Seaboard Triumph Foods in Sioux City. The department did not specify how old the children were when they were working at the pork processing plant.
The US Labor Department said the children were made to "use corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers, and other equipment." The children worked at the facility from at least September 2019 through the same month in 2023.
Under federal law, individuals under the age of 15 are not allowed to work in meat processing plants due to an increased risk of injury.
What Happens to Qvest Sanitation?
Qvest Sanitation is now required to pay $171,919 in penalties for child labor. It is also required to hire a third-party company to prevent the illegal hiring of minors in the future and establish a process for whistleblowers to report the illegal employment of children.
Seaboard Triumph Foods, on the other hand, said the labor department has not accused the company of any wrongdoing. It also added that the company does not tolerate child labor. Furthermore, Seaboard noted that it has ended its use of Qvest Sanitation services for over a year.
Child Labor Issue in the US
It is not the first time child labor has been reported in the same processing plant. In September 2023, Seaboard hired Fayette Janitorial Services for sanitation work at the Sioux City slaughterhouse. It was later found that Fayette rehired some of the minors previously employed by Qvest Sanitation.
It was unclear how many children Fayette hired from Qvest Sanitation, but the company employed at least two dozen children---some were migrants and some as young as 13---to work overnight shifts at the slaughterhouse in Sioux City as well as a Perdue Farms plant in Virginia. This included a 14-year-old whose arm was mangled in a machine, the Labor Department said.
Fayette has been asked to pay fines of $649,000. Seaboard announced that it has since decided to establish an in-house sanitation team.
