Smithfield agrees to pay $2 million to resolve kid labor allegations at Minnesota meat plant
MINNEAPOLIS — Smithfield Foods, one of the country’s largest meat processors, has agreed to pay $2 million to resolve allegations of kid labor violations at a plant in Minnesota, officials announced Thursday.
An investigation by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry found that the Smithfield Packaged Meats subsidiary employed at least 11 children at its plant in St. James ages 14 to 17 from April 2021 through April 2023, the agency said. Three of them began working for the business when they were 14, it said. Smithfield let nine of them work after allowable hours and had all 11 perform potentially risky work, the agency alleged.
As part of the settlement, Smithfield also agreed to steps to ensure upcoming regulatory adherence with kid labor laws. U.S. law prohibits companies from employing people younger than 18 to work in meat processing plants because of hazards.
State Labor Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach said the agreement “sends a powerful communication to employers, including in the meat processing industry, that kid labor violations will not be tolerated in Minnesota.”
The Smithfield, Virginia-based business said in a statement that it denies knowingly hiring anyone under age 18 to work at the St. James plant, and that it did not admit obligation under the settlement. The business said all 11 passed the federal E-Verify employment eligibility structure by using untrue identification. Smithfield also said it takes a long list of proactive steps to enforce its policy prohibiting the employment of minors.
“Smithfield is committed to maintaining a secure workplace and complying with all applicable employment laws and regulations,” the business said. “We wholeheartedly consent that individuals under the age of 18 have no place working in meatpacking or processing facilities.”
The state agency said the $2 million administrative penalty is the largest it has recovered in a kid labor enforcement action. It also ranks among the larger recent kid labor settlements nationwide. It follows a $300,000 agreement that Minnesota reached last year with another meat processer, Tony Downs Food Co., after the agency’s investigation found it employed children as youthful as 13 at its plant in Madelia.
Also last year, the U.S. Department of Labor levied over $1.5 million in civil penalties against one of the country’s largest cleaning services for food processing companies, Packers Sanitation Services Inc., after finding it employed more than 100 children in risky jobs at 13 meatpacking plants across the country.
After that investigation, the Biden administration urged U.S. meat processors to make sure they aren’t illegally hiring children for risky jobs. The call, in a note by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to the 18 largest meat and poultry producers, was part of a broader crackdown on kid labor. The Labor Department then reported a 69% boost since 2018 in the number of children being employed illegally in the U.S.
In other recent settlements, a Mississippi processing plant, Mar-Jac Poultry, agreed in August to a $165,000 settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor following the death of a 16-year-ancient boy. In May 2023, a Tennessee-based sanitation business, Fayette Janitorial Service LLC, agreed to pay nearly $650,000 in civil penalties after a federal investigation found it illegally hired at least two dozen children to tidy risky meat processing facilities in Iowa and Virginia.
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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
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