An Oklahoma-based cleaning company has been fined nearly $172,000 after federal investigators discovered that it employed nearly a dozen children to work hazardous overnight shifts at a pork processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa.http://go to google

The Labor Department

The Labor Department reported that 11 minors were hired by Qvest Sanitation, based in Guymon, Oklahoma, to work at the Seaboard Triumph Foods facility in Sioux City. The children were tasked with using corrosive cleaning chemicals to wash equipment such as head splitters, jaw pullers, band saws, and neck clippers.

The Labor Department did not disclose the ages of the children involved.

Adam Greer, the vice president of operations at Qvest, responded in a statement that the company had not been able to confirm the allegations since the Labor Department “has not provided any names or specific details about the alleged violations.” However, he emphasized that Qvest has fully cooperated with the Labor Department and is committed to enhancing its onboarding procedures.

This is the second time this year that a cleaning company contracted by Seaboard Triumph Foods has faced legal action from the Labor Department. In May, Fayette Janitorial Service, based in Tennessee, was fined $649,000 after it was found to have employed at least 24 children, some as young as 13, to work overnight shifts cleaning equipment at both Seaboard’s Sioux City plant and a Perdue Farms facility in Virginia. Nine of these children worked at the Seaboard plant.

When Fayette Janitorial Service took over the sanitation contract in September 2023, it “rehired some of the minors previously employed by Qvest,” which had held the contract since September 2019, according to the Labor Department’s statement.

“These findings highlight the ongoing issue of children working illegally at Seaboard Triumph Foods’ Sioux City facility, a problem that has persisted since at least 2019,” said Michael Lazzeri, the Labor Department’s regional administrator for the Midwest. “Despite changing sanitation contractors, minors continued to be employed in hazardous roles at this facility.”

Seaboard Triumph Foods, in a statement, denied employing any of the minors and said there was no evidence suggesting that children had access to the plant. The company also noted that Qvest had not been working at the facility for over a year.

Following the penalty against Fayette Janitorial Service in July, Seaboard announced on its blog that it had “strategically decided to establish its own in-house sanitation team.”

In addition to the fine, Qvest was instructed to hire an external party to implement policies aimed at preventing the employment of minors and to establish a system for reporting potential violations related to child labor.

Paul DeCamp, a former head of the Labor Department’s wage and hour division, now representing Seaboard, commented that the case highlights a widespread issue faced by employers: the use of fraudulent identification documents by minors seeking employment. These documents, he stated, are sophisticated enough to bypass the federal government’s E-Verify system, leaving businesses vulnerable to fraud.

Federal law prohibits minors from working in hazardous roles typically found in the meatpacking industry, which is known for its high injury risk. However, this has not deterred thousands of impoverished migrant children from Mexico and Central America from coming to the U.S. to take on these dangerous jobs.

The Labor Department reported that employers across the nation were fined more than $15.1 million for child labor violations in the fiscal year ending September 30, marking an 89% increase from the previous year. These penalties were the result of 736 investigations that uncovered violations involving over 4,000 children.

“As a department, our fundamental responsibility is to ensure that children are kept safe,” Jessica Looman, the administrator for the Labor Department’s wage and hour division, stated in an interview.for the Labor Department’s wage and hour division, said in an interview.