The US Department of Labor (DOL) has claimed that 102 children as young as 13 were found to be cleaning slaughterhouses illegally for Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), one of the largest food sanitation companies in America.
In a statement on Friday, the DOL also argued that the children who were purportedly working overnight shifts used “caustic chemicals to clean razor-sharp saws” for the company that employs 17,000 workers at 700 sites nationwide.
“Our investigation found Packers Sanitation Services’ systems flagged some young workers as minors, but the company ignored the flags. When the Wage and Hour Division arrived with warrants, the adults — who had recruited, hired and supervised these children — tried to derail our efforts to investigate their employment practices,” Michael Lazzeri, regional administrator for the division in Chicago, pointed out.
The PSSI responded by stating that the company has “a zero-tolerance policy against employing anyone under the age of 18 and fully shares the DOL’s objective of ensuring full compliance at all locations.”
The firm added that as soon as they “became aware of the DOL’s allegations,” they “conducted multiple additional audits” of their employee base.
“Our audits and DOL’s investigation confirmed that none of the individuals DOL cited as under the age of 18 work for the company today, and many had separated from employment with PSSI multiple years ago. The DOL has also not identified any managers aware of improper conduct that are currently employed by PSSI. We are fully committed to working with DOL to make additional improvements to enforce our prohibition of employing anyone under the age of 18,” the PSSI claimed.
Lawyers for the children involved in the PSSI case insisted that many of them were unaccompanied minors who had recently made it across the southern border to the US.
In January, there was speculation that the PSSI had been capitalizing on child labor trafficking, but thus far, the Department of Homeland Security has said there is no evidence to confirm the claim. Instead, the DHS is now looking into whether outside traffickers may have forced children to work for PSSI and profited secondhand.