Company fined $172K after children employed to clean Iowa pork plant

(NewsNation) — After a federal investigation found multiple children working as janitors at a pork processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa, between 2019 and 2023, the company that employed them must pay $172,000 for violating child labor laws, the U.S. Department of Labor has announced.

Qvest LLC, a sanitation company, contracted with the pork plant Seaboard Triumph Foods and employed 11 children to "use corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment," the Department of Labor said in a news release last week.

After four years of contracting with Qvest, the plant entered a sanitation contract with another company, Fayette Janitorial Service LLC, in September 2023. At that point, "Fayette rehired some of the children previously employed by Qvest," the department said.

“These findings illustrate Seaboard Triumph Foods’ history of children working illegally in their Sioux City facility since at least September 2019," said Michael Lazzeri, the Department of Labor's wage and hour Midwest regional administrator, in the news release. "Despite changing sanitation contractors, children continued to work in dangerous occupations at this facility."

It is unclear if Fayette Janitorial Service will be fined as well.

It is illegal for companies to employ anyone under 18 in "dangerous jobs," according to the Department of Labor, including in meat slaughtering, processing and packaging operations.

The department conducted over 700 investigations into child labor violations, affecting more than 4,000 children in 2024. This was an 89% increase from the year before.