Cargill needs months to fully cut out US firm fined for child labor

Breaking News: Cargill Inc is cutting ties with a U.S. company that was fined for hiring children to do dangerous work cleaning meat plants. However, the process will take months, according to Hans Kabat, who leads Cargill’s protein business in North America. The challenge lies in finding and implementing replacements for Packers Sanitation Services Inc (PSSI), which provides cleaning services at slaughterhouses.

Cargill, the world’s largest producer of ground beef, is reviewing options for having plants cleaned. Meanwhile, rival meatpacker JBS USA has also ended contracts with PSSI and is bringing sanitation work in-house at some facilities.

The U.S. Department of Labor fined PSSI $1.5 million in penalties for employing more than 100 teenagers in jobs at meatpacking plants in eight states. One of the largest penalties stemmed from PSSI’s contracts at Cargill’s plant in Dodge City.

“It will be a while to get the remaining facilities out,” Kabat said. “These are challenging issues and we want to make sure that we understand fully how to manage that – getting the plants cleaned, keeping people safe and still making sure that requirements around employment and age verification are all 100%.”

The Biden administration has urged meat companies to examine supply chains for evidence of child labor. This comes after a Reuters story exposed child labor at Alabama chicken plants in February 2022.

Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Josie Kao)

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