US Department of Labor continues investigations at Packers Sanitation Services
LINCOLN, NE – A federal court in Nebraska today entered a consent order and judgment in which Packers Sanitation Services Inc. LTD – one of the nation’s largest providers of food safety sanitation services – agreed to immediately comply with child labor laws at all facilities nationwide and to take significant steps to ensure future compliance, including employing an outside compliance specialist.
The action comes after a Nov. 10, 2022, order by U.S. District Court Judge John M. Gerrard that temporarily restrained the company and its employees from violating the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, identified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The department’s investigation into the company’s child labor violations continues.
On Nov. 9, 2022, the department filed a complaint after its Wage and Hour Division discovered that PSSI had employed at least 31 children – from 13 to 17 years of age – in hazardous occupations. Investigators determined that the children were cleaning dangerous powered equipment to fulfill sanitation contracts during overnight shifts at JBS USA plants in Grand Island, Nebraska, and Worthington, Minnesota, and at Turkey Valley Farms in Marshall, Minnesota. Since the issuance of the temporary restraining order, the number of minor children verified by the department to be employed by PSSI is at least 50 across two additional locations with different...
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