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Smithfield Foods to pay $2M to settle child labor claims

A subsidiary of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods has agreed to pay $2 million to settle allegations it hired children to work at a meat packaging plant in Minnesota.

According to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, Smithfield’s operation in Minnesota allegedly employed at least 11 children between the ages of 14 and 17 during the audit period of April 2021 through April 2023, three of whom started working for Smithfield when they were 14.

All 11 children “performed hazardous work for Smithfield, including: working near chemicals or other hazardous substances; operating power-driven machinery, including meat grinders, slicers and power-driven conveyor belts; and operating nonautomatic elevators, lifts or hoisting machines, including motorized pallet jacks and lift pallet jacks,” the department said in a Nov. 14 news release.

Nine of the children are alleged to have worked at night after the hours allowed by state law, according to the news release. Smithfield Packaged Meats is located in St. James, Minnesota, southwest of Minneapolis. Smithfield agreed to pay the $2 million fine within 30 days of the consent order.

“It is unacceptable for a company to employ minor children to perform hazardous work late at night. This illegal behavior impacts children’s health, safety and well-being and their ability to focus on their education and their future. Combating unlawful child labor in Minnesota is a priority for DLI and it will continue to devote resources to addressing and resolving these violations,” Minnesota DLI Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach said in a statement. “DLI’s resolution with Smithfield sends a strong message to employers, including in the meat processing industry, that child labor violations will not be tolerated in Minnesota.”

Smithfield issued a statement Thursday: “Smithfield contested DLI’s claims and denies that we knowingly hired anyone under the age of 18 to work in our St. James facility. We have not admitted liability as part of this settlement; however, in the interest of preventing the distraction of prolonged litigation, we have agreed to settle this matter.”

According to Smithfield, it screens all new hires through E-Verify, the federal system that validates hiring eligibility of U.S. citizens and noncitizens based on records available to the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

“Each of the 11 alleged underage individuals passed the E-Verify system by using false identification,” Smithfield said. “Each used a different name to obtain employment with Smithfield than the name by which DLI identified them to Smithfield.”

The company says it has taken steps to enforce prohibition of the employment of minors, including additional signage, HR training, and inspection protocols for temporary workers and employees of third-party sanitation contractors.

The largest pork producer in the United States, Smithfield has about 35,000 employees nationwide, according to a company spokesperson.

In Virginia, the U.S. Department of Labor announced in September 2023 it was investigating Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods facilities in Accomack County on the Eastern Shore over allegations of child labor violations recounted in a New York Times story last year. It appeared to be the first time that the federal agency had attempted to hold companies liable for alleged child labor violations by a subcontractor. A Department of Labor spokesperson said Friday that the investigations are still open.

According to the Times story, a 14-year-old Guatemalan boy’s arm was permanently injured in a 2022 conveyor belt incident at a Perdue plant in Accomack, where he was hired to work by a cleaning contractor. In May, a federal court approved a consent order between Fayette Industrial, a Tennessee cleaning contractor that was contracted for overnight sanitation shifts in Perdue’s plants in Accomack, and the federal Department of Labor, with nearly $650,000 in penalties.

Eastern Shore poultry plants under child labor probe

The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating allegations of child labor violations at the Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms poultry plants in Accomack County, after The New York Times recounted the story of a 14-year-old Guatemalan boy who was gravely injured while cleaning a Perdue slaughterhouse.

Marcos Cux, whose arm was permanently crippled in a February 2022 conveyor belt incident at an Accomack plant, worked for a contractor hired by Perdue that employed migrant children as young as 13 to clean “blood, grease and feathers from industrial machines,” often using acid and pressure hoses, according to the newspaper’s report. It appears to be the first time the agency has attempted to hold companies liable for child labor violations by a subcontractor. Two cleaning contractors also are under investigation, according to the Times.

After the story was published Sept. 22, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division opened inquiries into Tyson and Perdue, a DOL spokesperson confirmed: “No additional details can be provided as the investigations are ongoing.”

The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry said it is unable to discuss ongoing child labor investigations, but added the department “is concerned about the safety of all workers, including youth workers, throughout the commonwealth and [is]troubled by the alleged behavior.”

Hobey Bauhan, president of the Virginia Poultry Federation, a nonprofit trade association representing the industry, says that the state’s poultry plants in the Eastern Shore and the Shenandoah Valley are “early adopters” of the federal E-Verify system, which allows employers to confirm their employees’ eligibility to work in the United States.

The Times story, however, reports that underage workers often use faked documents to appear older. That’s “a challenge,” Bauhan says, and the poultry industry “is not immune from the possibility of someone using false documentation to try and get through. We as an industry do not condone false eligibility.”

Further, Bauhan says that “it’s incumbent upon the federal government” to address problems with the U.S. immigration system, particularly when children come to the country unaccompanied by parents and are under pressure to send money home.

Perdue issued a statement, saying that it was conducting a “third-party audit of child labor prevention and protection procedures, including a compliance audit of contractors and identity fraud review,” and would cooperate fully with the government. A Tyson spokesperson said in October the company had no comment.