Blackstone Prodded by New York on Child Labor Use at Meat Plants

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli pressed Blackstone Inc. for answers on how it plans to address what he called “abhorrent” child labor violations at a cleaning contractor owned by the private equity firm.

DiNapoli, sole trustee of the $240 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, expressed concern in a March letter to top Blackstone executives that fallout from a government investigation of Packers Sanitation Servicescould hurt investors. PSSI paid $1.5 million in fines in February after the US Department of Labor saidthe company illegally employed at least 102 children between the ages of 13 and ...