WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), alongside several Senate colleagues, sent letters to nine companies that contracted with Packers Sanitation Services, Inc. (PSSI), which the Department of Labor (DOL) found was unlawfully employing migrant child labor at these host companies’ facilities. In the letters, the Senators asked each host company to describe the changes to their contractor monitoring and procurement processes they either plan to implement or have made since the discovery of PSSI’s use of child labor, to ensure that these violations never happen 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, DOL has seen a 69 percent increase in companies illegally employing children. In fiscal year 2023, DOL found 835 companies it investigated had employed more than 3,800 children in violation of labor laws. In this particular case, 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 thirteen 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. Host companies also 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: 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.
In addition to Durbin, Menendez, and Booker, lawmakers joining this oversight effort were U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Peter Welch (D-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
For copies of the letter, click HERE. The full text of the letter can be found below.
May 30, 2023
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:
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,
-30-