Tennessee firm employed minors to clean meat saws, head splitters at slaughterhouses
Tennessee firm employed minors to clean meat saws, head splitters at slaughterhouses
Fayette Janitorial LLC employed 15 children to clean dangerous equipment at a Perdue Farms plant in Virginia and nine to clean a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork plant in Iowa.
The Labor Department said that Tennessee-based Fayette Janitorial LLC illegally employed 15 children to clean a Perdue Farms poultry plant in Virginia and nine to clean a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork processing plant in Iowa. They cleaned such equipment as head splitters and meat bandsaws.
Fayette has 600 employees in 30 states, according to the company’s website.
Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to work in slaughterhouses because the work is considered by the federal government to be too dangerous.