A national food manufacturer paid $140,164 in penalties after authorities found it culpable for employing children at its meat-packing and food-processing facility in southwest Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) said Tuesday.
Monogram Meats Snacks LLC agreed to pay the civil money penalties last Thursday following an investigation by the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, which found that the company employed five 17-year-olds, four 16-year-olds, and two 15-year-olds to work at the facility in Chandler in violation of federal child labor laws, the DOL statement noted. Nine of the eleven minors reportedly operated hazardous machinery.
Monogram Meat Snacks was also prohibited by law from shipping snack foods such as beef jerky, cheese, and sausage and was required to ensure compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act by permitting nationwide independent audits, enabling anonymous toll-free reporting of potential child labor issues, and identifying hazardous equipment.
The DOL launched the investigation as part of its effort to combat the 69% rise in illegal employment of children by companies since 2018, the statement noted. (RELATED: Authorities Discover Two 10-Year-Olds Allegedly Working In McDonald’s Kitchen For No Pay)
Monogram Meat Snacks, a maker of beef jerky, corndogs and other meat products, has paid more than $140,000 in penalties for employing at least 11 children at its meat-packing facility in Chandler, Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Labor said on Tuesday.
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“No employer should ever jeopardize the safety of children by employing them to operate dangerous equipment. Employers are legally responsible to recognize potential child labor violations and to take all appropriate actions to verify that they are not employing children illegally,” Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman said in part.
“Child labor abuses are a stain on our nation, and we will continue to utilize every tool and legal strategy at our disposal to keep young people safe,” Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda added in part, per the statement.
The company is a subsidiary of Monogram Food Solutions LLC, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, and a manufacturer of various foods including meat snacks, appetizers, assembled sandwiches, fully-cooked and raw bacon, and corn dogs. The company said it had changed its policies to make a recurrence “significantly less likely” and was “disappointed” at the DOL’s discovery of a small number of child workers among “hundreds of employees,” CBS News reported.