Food sanitation company accused of employing at least 31 children on graveyard shifts in slaughterhouses

A starring sanitation institution is accused of employing dozens of children to cleanable the sidesplitting floors of slaughterhouses during graveyard shifts, the Department of Labor announced.

Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., oregon PSSI, a institution contracted to enactment astatine slaughterhouses and meatpacking facilities passim the county, allegedly employed astatine slightest 31 kids — 1 arsenic young arsenic 13 — to enactment overnight cleaning shifts astatine 3 facilities successful Nebraska and Minnesota, according to tribunal documents filed connected Wednesday.

Those practices would interruption the Fair Labor Standards Act, which prohibits "oppressive kid labor" and minors from moving successful immoderate benignant of hazardous employment, according to the complaint. The Department of Labor's Child Labor Regulations designates many roles successful slaughterhouse and meatpacking facilities arsenic hazardous for minors.

In the tribunal filing, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh asked the Federal District Court of Nebraska to contented a impermanent restraining bid and nationwide preliminary injunction against the institution to halt it from employing minors portion the Labor Department continues its investigation.

Initial grounds indicates the institution whitethorn besides employment much kids nether akin conditions astatine 400 different sites crossed the country, successful summation to the 31 minors employed astatine 3 sites that investigators already confirmed, according to the complaint.

The tribunal partially granted the Department of Labor's petition successful a Thursday filing. That bid requires PSSI to "immediately cease and refrain from employing oppressive kid labor" and comply with the Department of Labor's investigation.

A proceeding is acceptable for Nov. 23 to sermon whether the bid volition beryllium extended, modified oregon dissolved.

In a connection to NBC News, a spokesperson for PSSI said it "has an implicit company-wide prohibition against the employment of anyone nether the property of 18 and zero tolerance for immoderate usurpation of that argumentation —period."

The spokesperson added that the institution mandates the usage of the national E-Verify strategy for caller hires, "as good arsenic extended training, papers verification, biometrics, and aggregate layers of audits."

"While rogue individuals could of people question to prosecute successful fraud oregon individuality theft, we are assured successful our company's strict compliance policies and volition support ourselves vigorously against these claims."  

The spokesperson added that executives were "surprised" by the DOL filing fixed that the institution "has been cooperating with their inquiry, producing extended documents and responses."

The Department of Labor did not instantly respond to an enquiry astir PSSI's claims of compliance and cooperation.

The company, which has been owned by a bid of backstage equity funds since 2007, says it employs 17,000 employees astatine much than 700 locations nationwide, according to its website.

Late nights, aboriginal mornings and chemic burns

The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division began its probe into PSSI connected Aug. 24, erstwhile it received a extremity from instrumentality enforcement that the institution whitethorn beryllium employing children, the ailment said.

Officials executed hunt warrants astatine 2 plants owned by nutrient processing institution JBS USA — successful Grand Island, Nebraska, and Worthington, Minnesota — and astatine a Turkey Valley Farms poultry processing works successful Marshall, Minnesota. Searches were besides conducted astatine PSSI's section offices successful Grand Island and Worthington, which enlistee workers, and the company's Keiler, Wisconsin, firm office.

In a statement, JBS USA's main morals and compliance serviceman Michael Koenig said the allegations against PSSI "represent a wide usurpation of our ethical policies" if true.

"We are instantly launching an independent, third-party audit astatine each of our facilities to thoroughly measure this situation," the connection continued. "JBS has zero tolerance for kid labor, favoritism oregon unsafe moving conditions for anyone moving successful our facilities."

Turkey Valley Farms wide manager Les Goff said successful a connection the institution "takes these allegations precise seriously" and is reviewing the substance internally.

"We expect each contractors to stock our committedness to the wellness and information of immoderate individuals moving successful our facilities and to adhere to these principles that foster a harmless enactment situation arsenic good arsenic to each applicable national and authorities labour laws," the connection continued.

"We are intimately monitoring the Department of Labor's actions with respect to Packers Sanitation Services Inc. and volition instrumentality each due action, based connected the result of the investigation."

Labor section officials besides subpoenaed schoolhouse records, interviewed confidential sources — including minors who worked successful the facilities — and conducted surveillance successful which they allegedly saw minors entering the facilities to enactment nighttime shifts arsenic portion of the investigation, the ailment stated.

The probe recovered that minors cleaned the sidesplitting floors and assorted machines — including nutrient and bony cutting saws and a grinding instrumentality — during the graveyard shifts, according to the complaint.

PSSI employed astatine slightest a twelve 17-year-olds crossed the 3 slaughterhouses, fourteen 16-year-olds, 3 15-year-olds, 1 14-year-old and 1 13-year-old, the ailment said.

Interviews with the kids — which were conducted successful Spanish, their archetypal language, according to the ailment — revealed that respective children began their shifts astatine the facilities astatine 11 p.m. and worked until 5, 6 oregon 7 a.m. Some worked up to six oregon 7 days a week.

School records showed that 1 14-year-old, who worked astatine the Grand Island installation from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. 5 to six days a week, from December 2021 to this past April, fell dormant successful people and missed schoolhouse aft suffering injuries from chemic burns. At slightest 2 different minors besides suffered chemic burns, the ailment states.

'The children ... cannot wait'

The ailment said that during the investigation, PSSI managers "attempted to thwart oregon tamper" with the postulation of evidence, including by attempting to obstruct investigators' worker interviews by surrounding the rooms wherever they were being conducted and holding oculus interaction with the minors.

Managers besides attempted to fell oregon delete documents, including work-related substance messages and incident/accident reports, the ailment states.

Late past month, the Department of Labor began reviewing different 47 locations wherever PSSI employs workers — which investigators fishy see much children, the ailment alleges, pointing to photographs from clock-in records astatine 8 different plants that look to amusement children.

"While Wage and Hour is continuing to determination implicit records to place specified children, it is slow, painstaking work. Yet, the children moving overnight connected the termination level of these slaughterhouses cannot wait," the ailment states.

Previous issues with idiosyncratic safety

Incidents of injuries and adjacent deaths employed by PSSI are not new.

The institution has had a troubled idiosyncratic information record in caller years: 3 PSSI workers person died connected the occupation since 2018, including 1 who was decapitated cleaning a chickenhearted chiller, according to Occupational Health and Safety Administration records highlighted in a March study by the watchdog group Private Equity Stakeholder Project.

And 4 others had accidents that resulted successful amputations, according to the report.

Blackstone, the backstage equity money that owns PSSI, vehemently disagreed with the report's findings.

"The alleged 'report' — which is riddled with errors and misinformation — is from a fringe, biased anti-private-equity ammunition group," Blackstone spokesperson Matthew Anderson said successful a statement. With respect to 4 full deaths astatine PSSI that were recorded by OSHA since 2018, Blackstone added, "In those cases: 1 was intelligibly determined to beryllium a non-work-related death; successful the 2nd OSHA did not contented a citation to PSSI oregon different responsibility our company; and successful the different 2 matters existing PSSI information protocols were not followed."

Last year, OSHA cited PSSI for 17 violations for failing to bid workers astir the dangers of liquid nitrogen aft a nitrogen leak killed six people who worked for the Foundation Food Group astatine a poultry works successful Gainesville, Georgia. Those killed were not employees of PSSI, but PSSI was liable for cleaning the works and for making definite its ain workers were harmless there, OSHA said. 

A PSSI spokesperson said the company's employees were not connected site  astatine the clip of the leak and were not progressive with the accumulation process oregon mechanical attraction of the equipment.

A 2017 analysis by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, recovered that PSSI has immoderate of the worst rates of workplace injuries successful the country.

PSSI described the study arsenic flawed.

When they are hired by PSSI, workers motion paperwork assuming the hazard of decease and wounded connected the job, NBC News reported past year. Many of its employees person felonies connected their records and had trouble uncovering enactment elsewhere — which advocates similar the Private Equity Stakeholder Project reason discourages workers from reporting unsafe conditions retired of fearfulness that they could suffer their jobs.

According to a Department of Labor study that NBC News obtained done FOIA past year, OSHA opened inspections into PSSI 56 times successful a span of 5 years, from 2015 done 2020, and issued 38 citations against the company.