The U.S. Department of Labor has fined a sanitation contractor around $172,000 for hiring 11 children to work “dangerous” night shifts at an Iowa pork plant.
Qvest LLC employed the children to work at the Seaboard Triumph Foods pork factory overnight.
The children used corrosive cleaners to clean bandsaws, head splitters, jaw pullers, neck clippers, and other equipment at the facility.
It is the second time children were employed by a sanitation contractor at the same pork processing plant.
On Nov. 27, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa approved a consent order with Qvest.
Qvest must pay $171,919 in child labor civil money penalties, hire a third party to implement company policies to avert the employment of children, and create a process for reporting concerns about illegal employment of children.
