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Sens. Menendez, Booker Lead Oversight Effort to Hold Companies Accountable for Contracting with Packers Sanitation Services, Inc. Which Unlawfully Employed Migrant Child Labor

Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.) today, alongside several Senate colleagues, sent letters to nine companies that contracted with Packers Sanitation Services, Inc. (PSSI), which the Department of Labor found were unlawfully employing migrant child labor at these host companies’ facilities. In the letters, the senators ask each host company to detail the changes to their contractor monitoring and procurement processes they plan to implement or have made since the discovery of PSSI’s use of child labor to ensure this never happens again.

“We write in response to recent reports that your company employed a contractor, Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), that violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) prohibition on the use of child labor in hazardous environments and exploited migrant children,” wrote the senators to the nine companies. “We are concerned that your company potentially turned a blind eye to glaring child labor issues in your facilities, and are deeply troubled by the response to previous Congressional inquiries that seek to shift accountability away from host companies to third-party contractors. While we recognize that you may have severed ties with PSSI, we are seeking information on your company’s process for monitoring contractor compliance with labor laws as well as information on the changes you will be implementing to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.”

Since 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has seen a 69 percent increase in companies illegally employing children. In fiscal year 2023, the DOL found 835 companies it investigated had employed more than 3,800 children in violation of labor laws. In this particular case, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division began investigating PSSI in August 2022 and found PSSI liable for employing more than 100 children, aged thirteen to seventeen at 13 meat-processing facilities in eight states. As DOL noted when unveiling an interagency child labor task force in February, companies who contract for services are often not vigilant about who is working in their facilities, creating child labor violations up and down the supply chain, and host companies often falsely claim that they are unaware or unable to control child labor issues happening at their worksites.

“We are concerned that [your company] did not conduct sufficiently rigorous monitoring and oversight of third-party contractors like PSSI. This lack of vigilance… allows for egregious violations and raises broader concerns of compliance and accountability,” added the senators. “Further, we are concerned that, despite the investigation and settlement by the DOL, Congressional inquiries, and outreach from the United States Department of Agriculture, several host companies have failed to terminate contracts with PSSI, have failed to address the deficiencies in their existing compliance and auditing practices, and/or have failed to institute company-wide oversight practices to address the current crisis.”

“Without concerted efforts by all relevant parties to root out all instances of child labor across the industry, children will continue to be illegally employed and exploited in dangerous working conditions in our country,” concluded the senators. “As such, we write to ask your company a number of questions to ensure that you properly monitor your contractors for potential FLSA and Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) violations, including child labor, and get to the bottom of past monitoring failures.”

The senators sent letters to nine companies that contracted with PSSI, including Tyson Foods, George’s Inc. (part of Rosen’s Diversified, Inc.), JBS Foods, Maple Leaf Farms Inc., Cargill Inc., Turkey Valley Farms, Buckhead Meat of Minnesota (part of Sysco Corporation), Gibbon Packing Co., and Greater Omaha Packing Co. Inc.

Joining Sens. Menendez and Booker in this oversight effort are Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

For copies of the letter, click HERE. The full text of the letter can be found below.

Dear [CEO NAME]:

We write in response to recent reports that your company employed a contractor, Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), that violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) prohibition on the use of child labor in hazardous environments and exploited migrant children.1 We are concerned that your company potentially turned a blind eye to glaring child labor issues in your facilities, and are deeply troubled by the response to previous Congressional inquiries that seek to shift accountability away from host companies to third-party contractors. While we recognize that you may have severed ties with PSSI, we are seeking information on your company’s process for monitoring contractor compliance with labor laws as well as information on the changes you will be implementing to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

Since 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has seen a 69 percent increase in children being employed illegally by companies. In fiscal year 2023, the department found 835 companies it investigated had employed more than 3,800 children in violation of labor laws.2

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division began investigating PSSI in August 2022 and found PSSI liable for employing more than 100 children, aged thirteen to seventeen at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states. The investigation found [#] children employed by PSSI working sanitation shifts at [COMPANY] facilities in [#] states in violation of child labor laws.3 The majority of these children are migrants, who face other acute vulnerabilities as they contend with the complexities associated with their immigration status and navigate unfamiliar school environments and new communities.

We are concerned that [INSERT COMPANY NAME] did not conduct sufficiently rigorous monitoring and oversight of third-party contractors like PSSI. This lack of vigilance between [INSERT COMPANY NAME] and its contractors allows for egregious violations and raises broader concerns of compliance and accountability. Further, we are concerned that, despite the investigation and settlement by the DOL, Congressional inquiries,4 and outreach from the United States Department of Agriculture,5 several host companies have failed to terminate contracts with PSSI, have failed to address the deficiencies in their existing compliance and auditing practices, and/or have failed to institute company-wide oversight practices to address the current crisis.

Without concerted efforts by all relevant parties to root out all instances of child labor across the industry, children will continue to be illegally employed and exploited in dangerous working conditions in our country. As such, we write to ask your company a number of questions to ensure that you properly monitor your contractors for potential FLSA and Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) violations, including child labor, and get to the bottom of past monitoring failures:

  1. Describe the standards that your company requires in your contracts with your contractors and subcontractors as it pertains to child labor, safety and health, foreign labor recruitment, and other labor standards.
  2. In detail, describe how you monitor your contractors and subcontractors for compliance with child labor laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act and standards under OSHA.
    1. Following the DOL’s findings, what changes have you made to the oversight of these contracts?
  3. Do you plan to continue employing PSSI as a contractor of your company?
    1. If so, how do you plan to alter the contract or its enforcement to ensure PSSI, or any other contractor or subcontractor, will comply with child labor laws in the future?
    2. If not, when did you or when do you plan to end the contract?
  4. Does your company outsource the enforcement or auditing of contractors to a third party?
    1. If so, what company do you utilize and how do you ensure that your third-party auditor is effectively enforcing child labor laws?
    2. If not, how does your company conduct the auditing of contractors, and at any point, did your auditing team raise concerns regarding PSSI for labor law violations?
  5. Beyond flagging potential issues for the contractor, what if any additional protocols does your company follow when it becomes aware that a contractor is or may be in violation of child labor laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act?
  6. How does your company monitor the contractor’s employee age verification process during the hiring process?
  7. Does your company have staff or managers on-site at regular intervals who are able to verify and/or assess whether contractor employees appear to be under the legal age to work in the facility in a racially and ethnically conscious manner?
    1. If so, is there a process in place to flag potential issues for the contractor so they can investigate them?
    2. If not, do you plan to place staff on site who can conduct informal checks?
  8. Does your company have signs or posters displayed conspicuously around its facilities, in English, Spanish, and any other languages spoken by the workforce, describing workers’ rights under U.S. labor laws and how they can seek recourse if those rights are being violated?
    1. If so, do such notices directly address child labor laws?
    2. If not, do you have plans to post such notices in the future?
  9. Does your company conduct oversight of orientations and trainings for contract and/or subcontract workers?
    1. If so, how does your company conduct oversight of orientations and trainings conducted by third-party contractors like PSSI to ensure that labor laws and employees’ rights and responsibilities are thoroughly communicated to contract and/or subcontract workers that will be operating within your facilities?
    2. If not, how does your company ensure that contract and/or subcontract workers are aware of labor laws and their rights and responsibilities while operating within your facilities?
  10. Does your company have protocols to ensure that direct employees of your company and employees of your contractors can report suspected trafficking or labor law violations, including child labor and safety and health violations, for investigation without fear of retaliation?
    1. If so, please provide a detailed description of that reporting process.
    2. If not, describe how you plan to implement such a policy moving forward.
  11. Do you have a plan outlining the compliance standards your company requires when interacting with employment recruiters in the hiring process?
    1. If not, how do you ensure that contractors, including PSSI, are effectively certifying the age of potential minors when interacting with recruiters?
  12. Does your company have an existing collective bargaining agreement or other worker representation at your facilities?
    1. If so, how are you working with the bargaining unit to address child labor and other concerns and prevent future violations?
    2. If not, are you willing to commit to a labor neutrality agreement so that your employees can act together to address shared concerns in the workplace?

Thank you in advance for your attention to this critical issue and your cooperation as we seek to address instances of child labor. We look forward to receiving your response by July 1, 2023.

Sincerely,

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