Perdue Farms and a staffing agency have reached agreements with the Labor Department over child labor violations found at the poultry giant’s Accomac, Virginia, facility.
Under the agreement, Perdue will pay $4 million to the children who worked at the plant, groups that advocate for child labor victims, and to fund "additional work to prevent child labor exploitation,” a department press release said. The company also agreed to pay a $150,000 civil fine.
Separately, the department reached an agreement with temporary staffing agency Staff Management Solutions LLC and SMX LLC. SMS will also pay a $125,000 fine.
In 2020, investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Perdue Farms had contracted with the staffing company to fill production-level jobs.
“[T]hey jointly employed children in hazardous occupations at the Accomac facility to debone and process chicken and other products using equipment such as electric knives and a heat-sealing press,” the department’s release said. “The employers also permitted children to work after 7 p.m. during a regular school week. These conditions violate the [FLSA’s] child labor hazardous orders and hours provisions.”
The agreements were announced two days after a similar settlement was reached with JBS USA Food.
The Wage and Hour Division's investigation also found that Perdue violated FLSA’s “hot goods” provision, designed to prevent employers from shipping goods “produced in, or about, an establishment where there was illegal child labor,” the department said.
“By entering into this agreement, Perdue Farms is taking meaningful action to root out child labor not only at its facilities but to recognize its corporate responsibility to combat child labor more broadly,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda.
In a statement, Perdue spokesperson Andrea Staub said the company “fully cooperated with the Department of Labor’s investigation, [which] did not identify any current underage workers at Perdue Farms.
“While we strongly disagreed with DOL’s findings of liability, and there are no admissions in the agreement to the contrary, Perdue recognized that a prolonged dispute … did nothing to address the child labor crisis.”
The company will set up a $2 million fund “for the benefit of impacted minors,” Staub said. In addition, “Perdue will also direct $2 million in contributions to charitable organizations in the Accomac community or whose purpose is to assist unaccompanied migrant children. Perdue has selected the Eastern Shore Community College and KIND [Kids in Need of Defense] as initial recipients of these donations.
“We are dedicated to advancing work that helps stem the child labor crisis in America by investing in our communities, education systems and essential social support networks,” Staub said.
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