Seaboard Triumph Foods

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a sanitation company, Qvest LLC, employed 11 children to work at  Seaboard Triumph Foods, a pork processing company, to do “dangerous work.”  Qvest is fined nearly $172,000 dollars. Department of Labor investigation determined 11 children were employed on the night shift using corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers, and other dangerous equipment at Seaboard Triumph Foods facility in Sioux City, Iowa. Federal Law forbids children under 18 yrs old to be employed in dangerous jobs, which are common in meat and poultry slaughtering ,processing, rendering, and packing operations.  Some of the employed children were as young as 13 yrs old.

In a statement released, “Seaboard Triumph Foods did not employ any of the alleged individuals and has no evidence that any underage individuals accessed the plant.”

In a statement, which quotes former head of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and current Seaboard Triumph Foods counsel, Paul DeCamp, pointed out employers across the country are struggling with people, incl;uding minors, being able to obtain jobs through fraudulent identification documents enough to fool the Federal Government’s  E-Verify system.

In 2024, the Department of Labor, determined that 736 investigations undercovering child labor violations affecting 4,030 children, and assessed employers more than $15.1 million dollars in penalties for violating federal child labor laws,  This is an increase of 89% since 2023.

Christine Heri–U.S. Department of Labor regional solicitor, to end illegal employment of children in our nation’s workplace, said,  “ we are committed to using all strategies to stop and prevent unlawful child labor and holding all employers legally responsible for their actions. Children never be hired to perform dangerous and prohibited tasks.”