On Monday, JBS USA, a unit of Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA (JBSS3.SA), announced it was canceling contracts with a U.S. business punished for recruiting juveniles to clean meat factories and moving the labor in-house.
Major meat industries are adjusting due to a U.S. federal probe into food-safety sanitation provider Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI).
JBS spokesperson Nikki Richardson said the company does not accept child labor and is switching from PSSI at all locations where suspected breaches occurred.
Richardson said the meatpacker hires its personnel at certain factories and third-party suppliers at others, including a beef factory in Cactus, Texas, that was not the subject of alleged labor breaches.
WARN data shows PSSI will cut 113 Cactus, Texas, jobs on May 30. PSSI verified the Cactus JBS plant WARN notification. In addition, the corporation previously stated it would not hire minors.
In February, the U.S. Department of Labor fined PSSI $1.5 million for employing over 100 teens in unsafe meatpacking operations in eight states.
PSSI’s JBS contracts in Nebraska and Minnesota caused two of the biggest penalties. In addition, PSSI was punished for recruiting juveniles at a third JBS site in Colorado and other meat company operations.
The Biden administration has pushed meatpackers to check their supply chains for child labor, but the Labor Department did not accuse them.
Reuters alleged that Alabama poultry companies and Hyundai and Kia assembly plant contractors used migrant kid workers illegally. Automakers denounce labor law infractions.
