USA: Poultry processing firms Tyson and Perdue are under investigation after contractors allegedly hired migrant children, incl. cos comments
Summary
Date Reported: 23 Sep 2023
Location: United States of America
Companies
Fayette Industrial - Employer , Perdue Farms Inc. - BuyerAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( 1 - Guatemala , Cleaning & maintenance , Gender not reported ) , Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Location unknown , Cleaning & maintenance , Gender not reported )Issues
Child labour , Occupational Health & Safety , Injuries , Reasonable Working Hours & Leisure TimeResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Journalist
External link to response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Representatives for Perdue said it was not trying to avoid accountability and would cooperate with any investigations. The company, which has policies prohibiting underage labor, said it had not known children were working in its Virginia plants. Perdue said it had hired an outside auditor to suggest new policies. “We recognize the systemic nature of this issue and embrace any role we can play in a solution,” a Perdue spokeswoman, Andrea Staub, said in a statement. Fayette said it had policies against child labor and was not aware of the federal investigations. Perdue has told Fayette that it may end its contract.
Source type: News outlet
Summary
Date Reported: 23 Sep 2023
Location: United States of America
Companies
QSI (part of Vincit) - Employer , Tyson - BuyerAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Location unknown , Cleaning & maintenance , Gender not reported )Issues
Child labour , Occupational Health & Safety , Reasonable Working Hours & Leisure TimeResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Journalist
External link to response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Representatives for Tyson said it was not trying to avoid accountability and would cooperate with any investigations. The company, which has policies prohibiting underage labor, said it had not known children were working in its Virginia plants. Tyson said it had hired an outside auditor to suggest new policies. The Labor Department took the additional step of sending out an alert to hundreds of investigators nationwide about a child labor “enforcement action” against QSI. The alert outlined a clearinghouse system for tips about the company that will be run through the department’s Tennessee office, where the sanitation company is based. QSI said it had policies against child labor and was not aware of the federal investigations. Tyson said it planned to end its relationship with QSI at several plants.
Source type: News outlet
“Tyson and Perdue Are Facing Child Labor Investigations”
…Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms…are under federal investigation into whether they relied on migrant children to clean slaughterhouses…
The Labor Department opened the inquiries after an article … found migrant children working overnight shifts for contractors in the companies’ plants … [in] Virginia…
…federal law bans minors from working in slaughterhouses because of the high risk of injury…
… the Biden administration is now examining whether large corporations can be considered employers even when children enter their factories through contractors…
Tyson said it was now directly employing cleaners at 40 percent of its slaughterhouses and aimed to bring more of this work in house. Perdue said it had hired an outside auditor to suggest new policies…
The Labor Department has also opened investigations into the companies that have been running the cleaning shifts for Perdue and Tyson in Virginia: Fayette Industrial, which works with Perdue, and QSI, which works with Tyson and is part of a conglomerate, the Vincit Group.
Fayette and QSI said they had policies against child labor and were not aware of the federal investigations. Tyson said it planned to end its relationship with QSI at several plants, while Perdue has told Fayette that it may end its contract…
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