A sanitation services company will pay $1.5 million in civil penalties after a US Department of Labor investigation found that the company illegally employed more than 100 kids to clean dangerous equipment and work overnight shifts across eight states.
Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation Services Inc. Ltd. agreed to pay the fines Thursday after the probe revealed that over the past three years 102 children as young as 13 were using hazardous chemicals to clean meat processing equipment, including “back saws,” tasks that are banned under child labor law.
“The child labor violations in this case were systemic and reached across eight ...