Labor Dept. seeks injunction banning child labor at cleaning company

[Omaha Steve]

Source: W Post

A 14-year-old cleaning a poultry-processing machine in Virginia was maimed during an overnight shift in 2022, officials said

By Salvador Rizzo
February 23, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. EST

A janitorial services company illegally employed children to clean slaughterhouse equipment at a poultry plant in Virginia, including a 14-year-old whose forearm was sliced to the bone in a 2022 incident, the Labor Department said this week in a court filing seeking a nationwide injunction that forbids the company from using child labor.

Labor Department attorneys alleged that Fayette Janitorial Service of Tennessee employed 15 minors, some as young as 13, to work overnight sanitation shifts at a poultry plant in Accomac, Va., while another nine children worked at a meat-processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa. Fayette has a presence in 30 states and “may employ minor children under similar conditions at its other operations,” the Labor attorneys said in documents filed Wednesday in federal court in Iowa.

Federal law prohibits “oppressive child labor” and Labor Department regulations state that minors under 16 are not allowed to work in hazardous jobs cleaning “power-driven machinery” such as food slicers, grinders, choppers and processors. Fayette continued to employ children after Labor Department investigators obtained a warrant and searched the Iowa facility in November, and the company admitted that “it employed at least one child” at the Virginia plant, according to court records.

“Oppressively employing minors threatens the health and welfare of vulnerable children,” attorneys for acting labor secretary Julie Su wrote in one filing, adding that “some of these children were too young to be lawfully employed at all.”


A Fayette Janitorial Service employee works an overnight shift Wednesday at Seaboard Triumph Foods in Sioux City, Iowa. The photo shows working conditions at the facility and does not depict a child. (U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division)


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/23/child-labor-injunction-cleaning-company/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the source:

US Department of Labor seeks injunction to stop use of ‘oppressive child labor’ by Fayette Janitorial Service at meat processing facilities

News Release

US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SEEKS INJUNCTION TO STOP USE OF ‘OPPRESSIVE CHILD LABOR’ BY FAYETTE JANITORIAL SERVICE AT MEAT PROCESSING FACILITIES

Federal investigators find children employed as industrial cleaners in Iowa, Virginia

SIOUX CITY, IA – The U.S. Department of Labor today asked a federal court to issue a nationwide temporary restraining order and injunction against Fayette Janitorial Service LLC – operating as Fayette Industrial – to stop the Tennessee-based company from illegally employing children while the department continues its investigations of the company’s labor practices.

Filed by the department’s Office of the Solicitor in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, the request for a restraining order is prompted by investigations by the department’s Wage and Hour Division. Investigators discovered Fayette employed children to clean and sanitize spaces and equipment during overnight shifts to fulfill sanitation contracts at a Perdue Farms plant in Accomac, Virginia and at Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC in Sioux City.

The Fair Labor Standards Act bans children under the age of 18 from working in dangerous occupations, including most jobs in meat and poultry slaughtering, processing, rendering and packing establishments.

In its filing, the department alleges Fayette employed 15 children, hired as young as 13 years old, in Virginia and at least nine children in Iowa on its overnight sanitation shifts. Minors were used to clean dangerous kill floor equipment such as head splitters, jaw pullers, meat bandsaws, and neck clippers. At least one 14-year-old at the Virginia facility suffered severe injuries while employed by Fayette.

“The employment of children in hazardous occupations is an egregious violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act that should never occur,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda. “The Department of Labor continues to use every available legal resource to protect workers and end child labor violations. We are working diligently with other federal agencies to combat child labor exploitation nationwide.”

“Federal laws were established decades ago to prevent employers from profiting from the employment of children in dangerous jobs, yet we continue to find employers exploiting children.” said Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman. “As we’ve unfortunately seen in this case, employers’ violations of federal child labor laws have real consequences on children’s lives. Our actions to stop these violations will help ensure that more children are not hurt in the future.”

Fayette Janitorial Service LLC of Somerville, Tennessee, provides contract sanitation and cleaning services for meat and poultry processing facilities, including Perdue Farms and Seaboard Triumph Foods, in about 30 states and employs more than 600 workers. The Department of Labor’s investigations into Fayette are ongoing.

In February 2023, the department announced the creation of an Interagency Task Force to Combat Child Labor Exploitation to better align federal efforts to protect children from exploitative situations in the workplace.

In fiscal year 2023, department investigators identified child labor violations in 955 cases and assessed employers with more than $8 million in penalties.

Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including child labor regulations on dangerous jobs that are prohibited for workers under age 18.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the agency, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).

Agency: Wage and Hour Division
Date: February 21, 2024
Release Number: 24-252-NAT

Media Contact: Scott Allen
Phone Number: 312-353-4727
Email: [e-mail]

Media Contact: Rhonda Burke
Phone Number: 312-353-4807
Email: [e-mail]