GREELEY, Colo. – The global meat-processor JBS put distance between itself and a contactor that’s accused if hiring, misusing and abusing underage boys at two JBS plants. At the U.S. headquarters in Greeley, the JBS corporate ethics and compliance officer, Michael Koenig, said the company has “zero tolerance for child labor, discrimination, or unsafe working conditions.” According to legal documents filed by the U.S. Labor Department, the contractor Packers Sanitation Services of Kieler, Wisconsin, held a JBS contract to provide overnight clean-up services of production line areas in plants in Worthington Minnesota, and Grand Island, Nebraska, and hired school kids as young as 13 to do the work. That would be a clear violation of a 110-year-old federal law against child labor. As JBS’ ethics chief, Koenig announced interim measures to confirm the status of all sanitation personnel at JBS facilities. Also, he said that independent third-party will be brought in to assess sanitation services at the JBS plants
Earlier: Lawsuit: Young teens hired illegally at slaughterhouses
JBS jobs. Worthington plant has 2,200 employees.
Day-shift production line. Meeting quotas shoulder to shoulder. At night clean-up crews from the PSS outside agency move in to scour the butchering and packing areas.