Catherwood LibraryILR School

A janitorial company based in Tennessee, Fayette Janitorial LLC, has been accused of hiring underage employees to work in dangerous work environments. The company cleans industrial slaughterhouses, and the United States Department of Labor claims that the company hired workers who were as young as thirteen years old to clean meat processing facilities. The company allegedly used child workers in two plants, a Perdue Farms poultry plant in Virginia and a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork factory in Iowa. Employees worked overnight shifts and were required to clean dangerous machinery. Federal law makes it illegal for workers under the age of eighteen years old to work in slaughterhouses and meat processing plants due to the dangerous work environment. This law protects young child workers from exploitation, and minors have been severely injured or have died while working at these types of factories in the past. Both Perdue and Seaboard Triumph Foods have stated that they have terminated their contracts with Fayette Janitorial LLC.