The filing by the U.S. Department of Labor accused Fayette
Janitorial Service LLC of Memphis of employing 15 underaged
workers to clean a Perdue Farms poultry plant in Virginia and
nine at a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork-processing plant in Iowa.
The equipment cleaned by the young people included machines used
to split the heads of slaughtered animals and bandsaws to cut
meat. It is unlawful to hire anyone under age 18 to do such
work, the Labor Department said.
“The employment of children in hazardous occupations is an
egregious violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act that should
never occur,” U.S. Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda said in a
release. “The Department of Labor continues to use every
available legal resource to protect workers and end child labor
violations."
Neither of the company's owners, Dale Burns and Michelle Burns,
nor their representatives responded to a request for comment.
Representatives for Seaboard Triumph and Perdue Farms did not
immediately return phone calls.
The Labor Department asked the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of Iowa to impose a temporary restraining
order on Fayette Janitorial to stop the company from using
"oppressive child labor."
"This is a first step," said Scott Allen, spokesperson for the
Department of Labor, adding that an investigation was still
underway.
Fayette Janitorial employs 600 people in 30 states, according to
its website.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Frank McGurty
and Bill Berkrot)
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