U.S. company fined for hiring kids to clean meatpacking plants

A major food safety sanitation company has paid $1.5 million in penalties for employing more than 100 teenagers in dangerous jobs at meatpacking plants in
eight states, the U.S. Department of Labor said on Friday.
The department said Packers Sanitation Services Inc allowed at least 102 children between 13 and 17 years old to work overnight shifts and use hazardous chemicals to clean dangerous meat processing equipment such as brisket saws and “head splitters” used to kill animals.
Packers contracts with meatpacking companies to providecleaning services at slaughterhouses.
Federal labor law prohibits children under 18 from working in meatpacking plants and bars minors from working past 9 p.m. in the summer and 7 p.m. during the school year.
The largest penalties against Packers stemmed from its contracts at JBS USA plants in Nebraska and Minnesota and a Cargill Inc plant in Kansas. The Labor Department did not accuse JBS, Cargill and other meatpackers of wrongdoing.