Sioux City, Iowa — A contract cleaning company that used to clean the Seaboard Triumph Foods plant in Sioux City has been fined nearly 650 thousand dollars for violating child labor laws.
In its filing, the US Department of Labor says Fayette Janitorial Service LLC employed 15 children, hired as young as 13 years old, in Virginia and at least nine children in Iowa on its overnight sanitation shifts, sometimes cleaning dangerous equipment.
Investigators discovered Fayette employed children to clean and sanitize spaces and equipment during overnight shifts to fulfill sanitation contracts at a Perdue Farms plant in Accomac, Virginia, and at Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC in Sioux City.
The Fair Labor Standards Act bans children under the age of 18 from working in dangerous occupations, including most jobs in meat and poultry slaughtering, processing, rendering, and packing establishments.
