Minnesota meatpacking company to pay penalty, lose ability to ship products for child labor law violations
CHANDLER, Minn. — A southwestern Minnesota meatpacking and food processing company has agreed to pay a monetary penalty after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor revealed it was violating federal child labor laws.
Monogram Meat Snacks LLC, a subsidiary of a Tennessee-based company, will pay $140,164 in civil money penalties for hiring at least 11 teenagers, and having nine of them operate hazardous machinery at its facility in Chandler, which is about 30 miles northwest of Worthington.
RELATED: New bill would crack down on companies that break child labor laws
According to the investigation, which started in March by the department's Wage and Hour Division, five of the children employed were 17, four were 16, and two were 15.
Monogram is now prohibited from shipping its products — including beef jerky, cheese, and sausage — for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act's "hot goods" provision. It's not clear how long the company will be under this prohibition order.
The Department of Labor says since 2018, there has been a 69% increase in the illegal employment of children.
Democratic U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill this spring, the Child Labor Exploitation Accountability Act, that would bar companies with a history of "egregious labor law violations" from contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Companies competing for USDA contracts would also have to disclose any violations that happened in the previous three years.
