Investigators find 11 children working 'dangerous' overnight cleaning shift in meat processing plant
A cleaning company has been fined $171,000 after federal investigators found 11 children working a "dangerous" overnight shift at a meat processing plant in Iowa.
A cleaning company has been fined $171,000 after federal investigators found 11 children working a "dangerous" overnight shift at a meat processing plant in Iowa.
The U.S. Labor Department said in a statement that it found the children working for sanitation company Qvest LLC at the Seaboard Triumph Foods pork factory in Sioux City, Iowa.
The children were employed to "use corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment at the Seaboard Triumph Foods facility from at least September 2019 through September 2023," the statement said.
It is illegal under U.S. law for anyone younger than 18 to work in meat processing. Qvest must pay the fine and not engage in "oppressive child labor," as per a court filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.
Qvest, which is based in Oklahoma, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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