USA: Poultry processing firms Tyson and Perdue are under investigation after contractors allegedly hired migrant children, incl. cos comments
“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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