(Washington) Teenagers were cleaning meat slaughterhouses in the United States, including at night: their employer, a subcontractor for large groups, paid 1.5 million dollars in fines and the Department of Labor alerted on the increase in the number of cases of child labour.
“These children were working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment, including back saws, chest saws and head splitters,” the Labor Department said in a Friday statement.
Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation Services (PSSI), which paid $1.5 million in civil fines, is “one of the nation’s largest providers of agri-food cleaning and sanitation services,” it says. .
Among its customers affected by these cases of child labor are the meat giants JBS, Cargill, and Tyson Foods.
The company “employed at least 102 children – ages 13 to 17 – in hazardous occupations and had them work night shifts at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states” in the United States, and at least three minors were injured, the Labor Department said.
And when officials arrived at PPSI to investigate, “the adults – who had recruited, hired and supervised these children – tried to derail our efforts,” said Chicago Labor Department regional manager Michael Lazzeri. the press release.
But this case “is not unique. It’s at all levels. So we see a lot of children working outside of the legal requirements,” Jessica Looman, a Labor Department official, told a press conference call.
“We have seen an increase of around 50% in child labor violations since 2018,” she pointed out.
Several states in the country want to relax their laws on child labor, in order to help companies, which face a shortage of workers, to recruit.
“The laws passed by each state do not prevail over [la loi fédérale]nor do they replace it”, commented Jessica Looman, adding that “the laws most protective of children or workers […] will be those with which an employer will have to comply”.