Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., or PSSI, allegedly employed dozens of minors to clean killing floors and cutting machines in Nebraska and Minnesota.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, PSSI is one of the largest food safety companies in the United States that contracts to work at slaughterhouses and meatpacking facilities throughout the county,, doing cleaning and sanitation, reports NBC News.
The department filed for an injunction in U.S. District Court in Nebraska on Wednesday against Packers Sanitation Services, which Judge John. M. Gerrard swiftly ordered on Thursday, according to the New York Times.
According to the injunction, the investigation was prompted by an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that discovered that PSSI had employed at least 31 children – from 13 to 17 years of age – in hazardous occupations.
The jobs performed by children included cleaning dangerous powered equipment during overnight shifts to fulfill sanitation contracts at JBS USA plants in Grand Island, Nebraska, and Worthington, Minnesota, and at Turkey Valley Farms in Marshall, Minnesota.
The mix of boys and girls were not fluent English speakers and were interviewed mostly in Spanish, investigators said. One 13-year-old suffered caustic chemical burns and other injuries. One 14-year-old, who worked from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. five to six days a week, suffered injuries from chemical burns from cleaning machines used to cut meat.
School records showed that the student fell asleep in class or missed class because of the job at the plant.
Initial evidence also indicates the company may also employ more kids under similar conditions at 400 other sites across the country, in addition to the 31 minors employed at three sites that investigators already confirmed, according to the complaint.
A hearing is set for Nov. 23 to discuss whether the order will be extended, modified, or dissolved.
In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for PSSI said it “has an absolute company-wide prohibition against the employment of anyone under the age of 18 and zero tolerance for any violation of that policy —period.”
In the United States, child labor rules prohibit minors under the age of 14 from working and prohibit 14- and 15-year-olds from working later than 9 p.m. over the summer and past 7 p.m. during the school year.
They are also prohibited from working more than three hours on school days, more than eight hours on non-school days, and more than 18 hours per week. Minors cannot operate motor vehicles, forklifts, or other hazardous equipment.
JBS USA is based in Greeley, Colorado. In December 2006, six of the company’s meat-packing facilities in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Iowa, and Minnesota were raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
This resulted in the apprehension of 1,282 undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan, and Ethiopia, and nearly 200 of them were criminally charged after a ten-month investigation into identity theft.
The company denied any wrongdoing in the aftermath of the raids and ended up having to curtail production for a time. A company official said that it took four months to resume full production at the two pork plants, and five months at the four beef plants.
