Fayette Janitorial Service LLC agreed to pay nearly $650,000 in civil penalties and the court-ordered mandate that it no longer employs minors.
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.
That’s not all, folks! 🐷 This shit runs deep, this is merely the tip of the iceberg. I just can’t wrap my head around children being brought into these places, trained, and then let loose–and no adult along that chain thinks to themselves that maybe there’s a problem with that?!?!?!
From the article:
One 14-year-old was severely injured while cleaning the drumstick packing line belt at the plant in Virginia, the investigation alleged.
The agreement stipulates that Fayette will hire a third-party consultant to monitor the company’s compliance with child labor laws for at least three years, as well as to facilitate trainings. The company must also establish a hotline for individuals to report concerns about child labor abuses.
The Labor Department’s latest statistics indicate the number of children being employed illegally in the U.S. has increased 88% since 2019.
This is all very performative, slap-on-the-wrist level punishment, and i imagine there are hundreds more children out there still working in shit conditions because nobody will say or do anything about it until more injuries/deaths force them to.
I wonder, also, how much that increase in children being employed illegally is them needing to in order to make ends meet at home due to corporate greedflation running rampant?
Like, yes, the companies shouldn’t hire the kids. But also, we should address why those kids are willing to work those jobs in the first place.