Investigation Found Tennessee Firm Hired Kids To Clean Head Splitters In Slaughterhouse

Shut them down!

An investigation found children as young as 13 were hired by a Tennessee-based firm to work in dangerous conditions at slaughterhouses.

The U.S. Department of Labor accuses Fayette Janitorial Services of having minors cleaning dangerous equipment, including head splitters and jaw pullers, at meat processing plants. The Department requested a federal court in Iowa to issue a temporary injunction against the company after finding children would work overnight shifts to satisfy sanitation contracts at meat and poultry companies.

Hiring occurred at slaughterhouses in the Midwest and Southeast. Allegedly, 15 children were hired to work at a Perdue Farms processing plant in Accomac, Virginia. A 14-year-old child was severely injured at a Seaboard Triumph Foods facility in Sioux City, Iowa. Other children also worked at the location. In a statement, Perdue alleges they terminated their contract with Fayette before the court filing.

“Underage labor has no place in our “business or our industry,” a spokesperson wrote. “Perdue has strong safeguards in place to ensure that all associates are legally eligible to work in our facilities—and we expect “the same of our vendors.”

The findings come as a part of a growing probe into whether migrant kids are cleaning U.S. slaughterhouses. Federal law prohibits minors from working in meat processing due to the high risk of injury. In the same year, DOL fined another janitorial service $1.5 million for having more than 100 kids — between ages 13 and 17 — on the payroll at 13 meat processing plants in eight states.

In December 2023, a New York Times Magazine published a detailed report of kids cleaning blood, grease, and feathers from equipment with acid and pressure hoses. At a Perdue slaughterhouse in Virginia, a 14-year-old boy, who was one of thousands who crossed the border from Mexico or Central America, was mutilated while cleaning a conveyor belt at a deboning area.

This isn’t the first time Fayette has been in hot water. The company was cited in July 2022 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for failing to make sure employees followed proper procedure after a worker was sucked into a conveyor belt at a Gerber Poultry plant. The Labor Department also found more than two dozen child laborers worked at the same plant in October 2023.

Jessica Looman, administrator at the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, said they are working with other federal agencies looking to conquer 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,” Looman said.

“Our actions to stop these violations will help ensure that more children are not hurt in the future.”