Meat plant cleaning service fined $1.5M for hiring minors

By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Department of Labor says one of the country’s largest cleaning services for food processing companies employed more than 100 children in dangerous jobs at 13 meatpacking plants across the country. The agency said Friday that Wisconsin-based Packer Sanitation Services Inc. has paid over $1.5 million in civil penalties. At least three of those minors were injured on the job, burned by caustic cleaning chemicals at the JBS plant in Grand Island, Nebraska. The 13 plants were in Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas. The agency says it’s seen about a 50% increase in child labor violations since 2018.