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Cleaners of a Sioux City pork processing plant have been fined for hiring child employees to work night shifts and for other regulatory breaches.

Qvest LLC (Qvest), based in Guymon, Oklahoma, runs several sanitation companies nationwide, but this case occurred in a in Iowa at the Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC facility.

In light of the breaches, a consent order was issued to Qvest on Nov. 27, 2024, by a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. This action resulted from Fayette Janitorial Service LLC taking over the cleaning contracts at the Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC facility from Qvest in September 2023.

Cleaners of a pork processing plant fined

Under , children under age 18 cannot be employed in dangerous jobs common in meat and poultry slaughtering, processing, rendering, and packing operations.

“These findings illustrate Seaboard Triumph Foods’ history of children working illegally in their Sioux City facility since at least September 2019. Despite changing sanitation contractors, children continued to work in dangerous occupations at this facility,” said Wage and Hour Midwest Regional Administrator Michael Lazzeri.

According to the report, Qvest has to pay $171,919 in “child labor civil money penalties and hire a third party to review and implement company policies to prevent the employment of children,” which is a direct violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The report originated from a Wage and Hour Division investigation, which found that the sanitation contractor employed “11 children to use corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers, and other equipment at the facility from at least September 2019 through September 2023.”

“The U.S. Department of Labor is determined to end the illegal employment of children in our nation’s workplaces,” said Regional Solicitor Christine Z. Heri. “We are committed to using all strategies to stop and prevent unlawful child labor and holding all employers legally responsible for their actions. Children should never be hired to perform dangerous and prohibited tasks.”

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