Perdue Farms agrees to $4M settlement in child labor probe

Perdue Farms has agreed to pay $4 million in restitution to settle a federal investigation into alleged child labor violations at the company’s poultry processing plant on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

In October 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced it had launched a probe into alleged child labor violations at the Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms poultry plants in Accomack County following a New York Times exposé in September 2023 that recounted the story of a 14-year-old Guatemalan boy whose arm was maimed while working an overnight cleaning shift at Perdue’s facility on the Eastern Shore.

What differentiated this DOL investigation from earlier probes was that the allegedly underage workers were employed by third-party contractors, not directly by the poultry giants. The Wage and Hour Division’s investigation of Tyson Foods remains open, according to a DOL spokesperson.

According to Wednesday’s announcement, the Labor Department reached a separate agreement with Seattle-based temporary staffing agency Staff Management Solutions and SMX (subsidiaries of TrueBlue and known collectively as SMX), in which the company agreed to pay a $125,000 civil penalty and was permanently enjoined from future child labor violations in meat processing and packing industry.

In addition to Perdue paying $4 million in restitution to the children and organizations advocating for child labor victims, as well as supporting work to prevent child labor, the Maryland-based company agreed to pay a $150,000 monetary penalty, according to the DOL news release.

As far back as 2020, Perdue Farms contracted with SMX to fill production jobs at its Accomac plant, DOL investigators found. “They jointly employed children in hazardous occupations … to debone and process chicken and other products using equipment such as electric knives and a heat-sealing press,” the DOL said. “The employers also permitted children to work after 7 p.m. during a regular school week,” violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor hazardous orders and hours provisions.

Federal investigators found that Perdue violated the FLSA’s “hot goods” rule, which prevents employers from shipping goods produced in an establishment where there was illegal child labor.

“The Department of Labor has and will use all available tools to address child labor exploitation,” Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman said in a statement. “Government, industry, workers and advocates must come together to build solutions to the problem of exploitative child labor. The department’s work uncovering a systemic disregard for the safety of children resulted in meaningful commitments to stop and prevent child labor exploitation.”

Perdue spokesperson Andrea Staub released a statement regarding the matter, saying that the company “has entered into an agreement with the Department of Labor to support the greater Accomac community and unaccompanied migrant children.”

According to its statement, Perdue “strongly disagreed with DOL’s findings of liabilities, and there are no admissions in the agreement to the contrary, [but] Perdue recognized that a prolonged dispute with the Department of Labor did nothing to address the child labor crisis.” The company added that the investigation didn’t identify any current underage workers at Perdue Farms.

The company said it will establish a $2 million fund for the benefit of impacted minors and will make $2 million in contributions to the Eastern Shore Community College and Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a national organization focused on providing legal representation to children in immigration proceedings and protecting their rights to due process.

“Any instance of underaged workers in our facilities was without authorization and is unacceptable. Underage labor has no place in our business and our industry,” Staub said.

Perdue and SMX agreed to several measures under the agreements, including not hiring anyone under the age of 18 in certain locations; providing mandatory training on child labor for employees; disciplining anyone who doesn’t comply with federal child labor laws; not retaliating against any employee who has filed a complaint or testifies in an FLSA proceeding; establishing a tip line for employees; and increasing reporting regarding compliance.

On Thursday, the Department of Labor announced it had entered into an agreement with a Tennessee-based cleaning contractor that allegedly employed children at 13 meat and poultry processing facilities, including in Virginia.

QSI, part of conglomerate Vincit Group, worked with Tyson Foods at its Temperanceville facility, in Accomack County. The DOL found that QSI employed children overnight, and the employer has agreed to pay $400,000 in civil penalties, as well as monitor and audit policies to prevent underage workers from taking dangerous jobs and maintain a toll-free number to report concerns about child labor.

“The Department of Labor’s announcement today is simply not accurate,” QSI said in a statement. “Our settlement agreement contains no admission by QSI or any finding of violations. We entered into this voluntary settlement agreement only after DOL’s investigation found zero underage individuals on-site or working at QSI and to avoid the time and expense of litigation.

“DOL has refused to disclose any information whatsoever regarding alleged ‘violations’ (none of which could be verified by third party auditors). DOL acknowledged it has not identified any current violations, and that QSI’s industry-best compliance measures are working effectively. Our settlement is not a consent order and judgment as every other contract sanitation company has been required to enter and does not require any additional DOL oversight or monitoring beyond best practices QSI voluntarily put in place long before DOL’s investigation began.

“QSI has a zero-tolerance policy for any employment of underage workers. We have taken extensive steps over the last two and a half years to strengthen our hiring and compliance practices as we continue to serve our customers with integrity and excellence.”

In May 2024, Tennessee cleaning contractor Fayette Janitorial Service, which Perdue hired to clean its Accomac poultry plant, entered into a consent order and judgment with a federal court in Iowa to pay nearly $650,000 in civil money penalties. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division found that Fayette employed at least 24 children, some as young as 13, on overnight sanitation shifts at Perdue’s Accomac plant and Seaboard Triumph Foods in Sioux City, Iowa.

Arkansas-based Tyson Foods has also been under investigation for allegedly employing minors believed to be under 16 years old in two Arkansas plants, according to court records unsealed in October 2024.