Tyson Foods is being investigated by the Department of Labor for employing minors at two of its Arkansas poultry processing plants. This investigation comes at the height of child labor law violations in the past 10 years, according to DOL data.
The number of child labor law violations has increased 35% in the last decade. At that same time, the amount of monetary fines issues by the department to companies under investigation has tripled.
Recently unsealed federal court records show that DOL investigators have been investigating Tyson Foods plants in Green Forest and Rogers, Arkansas, for employing minors believed to be under 16 years old. Inspector records include photographs of alleged minors entering and exiting Tyson plants.
Meatpacking plants across the country have been investigated for illegally employing minors across the country in recent years. In 2022, the DOL fined a sanitation company more than a million dollars for employing over 100 children some as young as 13 years old, to clean meatpacking at Tyson, JBS, Cargill and other plants across eight states.
Tyson has denied any wrongdoing.
“To be clear, we do not allow the employment of anyone under the age of 18 in any of our facilities, and we do not facilitate, excuse or in any other way participate in the use of child labor,” a Tyson Foods spokesperson said. “We take the enforcement of all labor laws very seriously, and we have procedures in place to verify the age of all team members, and fully participate with the federal government’s E-Verify and IMAGE programs. We have fully cooperated with the Department of Labor, and they have not provided us with any information that would suggest that any of our policies or practices were violated.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a response from Tyson Foods.
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