Feds Again Find Child Labor At Iowa Pork Plant, Prompting New Fine

For the second time this year, the federal government has issued a fine over the use of child labor to clean a pork processing plant in the Midwest.

Th U.S. Labor Department on Friday announced that Oklahoma’s Qvest LLC must pay nearly $172,000 in civil money penalties, after the government accused the sanitation company of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act through the employment of 11 children at the Seaboard Triumph Foods pork factory in Sioux City, Iowa.

The minors were tasked with using “corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment” from at least September 2019 through September 2023, the Labor Department said.

Back in May, a different cleaning company was fined more than $649,000 for using underage workers at the same Sioux City plant, as well as at a separate meat processing facility in Virginia.

“These findings illustrate Seaboard Triumph Foods’ history of children working illegally in their Sioux City facility since at least September 2019,” Michael Lazzeri, the Midwest regional administrator for the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, said in Friday’s announcement. “Despite changing sanitation contractors, children continued to work in dangerous occupations at this facility.”

In addition to the fine, Qvest must hire a third-party consultant or compliance specialist to ensure enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor provisions. All management personnel must receive child labor compliance training, and employees must be provided access to a toll-free number that they can call to request guidance or report compliance issues on an anonymous basis.

Representatives for both Qvest and Seaboard Triumph Foods told HuffPost that no minors were knowingly hired at the Sioux City facility, and that the issue was likely the result of a nationwide problem of people using fraudulent identification documents to obtain employment.

“We have absolutely no interest in having any employees that are under the age of 18 and the company has worked diligently to ensure our hiring process is structured to be in compliance with this standard,” Adam Greer, Qvest’s vice president of operations, said in a statement.

Greer added that Qvest has not been able to confirm any of the Labor Department’s accusations, saying that federal officials have not shared “any names or specific information related to the alleged violations.” Despite this, he said that the company agrees with the government’s efforts to combat child labor and that Qvest has expanded its human resources staff and the training given to hiring personnel for confirming work eligibility.

“While there is always a chance that future candidates may attempt to use fraudulent documentation, we are encouraged by how our improved detection measures are working now,” Greer said.

A spokesperson for Seaboard Triumph Foods similarly said that it “has no evidence that any underage individuals accessed the plant” and stressed that the Labor Department’s complaint does not accuse the company of any wrongdoing.

In a separate statement from Seaboard Triumph Foods, Paul DeCamp, who previously led the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division and now acts as legal counsel for the foods company, also criticized individuals’ ability to use fake documentation to “fool even the federal government’s E-Verify system,” a database for confirming employment eligibility.

“Businesses are victimized by this fraud,” he said.