U.S. urges meat companies to ensure they don’t use child labour

OMAHA, Neb. –

The Biden administration is urging U.S. meat processors to ensure kids aren’t being illegally employed to carry out harmful jobs at their vegetation.

The name comes after an investigation discovered greater than 100 youngsters working in a single day for a corporation that cleans slaughterhouses, dealing with harmful tools like cranium splitters and razor-sharp bone saws.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack despatched a letter Wednesday to the 18 largest meat and poultry producers urging them to look at the hiring practices at their corporations and suppliers. The letter is a part of a broader effort by the administration to crack down on using baby labor. The Labor Department has reported a 69 per cent improve since 2018 within the variety of kids being employed illegally within the U.S.

“The use of illegal child labor — particularly requiring that children undertake dangerous tasks — is inexcusable, and companies must consider both their legal and moral responsibilities to ensure they and their suppliers, subcontractors, and vendors fully comply with child labor laws,” Vilsack stated within the letter.

Just final 12 months, the Labor Department discovered that greater than 3,800 kids had been working illegally at 835 corporations in numerous industries. In essentially the most egregious latest case, Packers Sanitation Services Inc., or PSSI, agreed earlier this 12 months to pay a US$1.5 million tremendous and reform its hiring practices after investigators confirmed that at the very least 102 youngsters had been working for the corporate at 13 meat processing vegetation nationwide.

PSSI, which is predicated in Wisconsin, employs about 17,000 individuals working at greater than 700 places, making it one of many largest food-processing-plant cleansing corporations. The vegetation the place PSSI was discovered to be using minors had been in Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas.

The Labor Department says it has greater than 600 baby labor investigations underway and officers are involved concerning the exploitation of youngsters, significantly migrants who could not actually have a father or mother within the United States.

Several federal companies launched a broad effort to fight baby labor earlier this 12 months, and officers requested Congress to extend the penalty for violations as a result of the present most tremendous of US$15,138 per baby is not sufficient of a deterrent to massive corporations.

One main meat producer, Smithfield Foods, stated Wednesday it was not conscious of any violations at its amenities. “Smithfield Foods and all of its affiliates comply with all child labor laws, both federal and state,” the corporate stated. “We require all of our contractors to do so as well.”