SIOUX CITY, IOWA—Fayette Janitorial Service LLC or Fayette Industrial, a Tennessee cleaning contractor, entered into a consent order and judgment on May 6 that requires the company to pay $639,304 in fines following a Department of Labor (DOL) investigation into its violation of federal child labor regulations. 

The agreement approved by a federal judge came after the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division found that Fayette employed at least 24 children, some as young as 13 years old, to complete contracts for overnight sanitation shifts at Perdue Farms in its Accomac, Va., plant and Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC in Sioux City, Iowa. 

Both companies made statements in late February that they would terminate contracts with Fayette Industrial.

A preliminary injunction was obtained against Fayette Janitorial Service at the US District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. According to the DOL investigation, the company agreed to nationwide compliance six days after the department filed its motion for a temporary restraining order.

“Every employer has a legal and moral obligation to make certain they are not employing children in dangerous jobs,” said Michael Lazzeri, Wage and Hour Midwest Regional Administrator. “With this agreement, we are ensuring Fayette Janitorial Service takes immediate and significant steps to ensure they never put children in harm’s way again.”

Details from the DOL investigation said that children were working overnight shifts and using corrosive cleaners on equipment such as head splitters, jaw pullers, meat bandsaws and neck clippers at the Seaboard Triumph plant.

Along with the payments for child labor violations, the consent order requires Fayette to hire a third-party consultant or compliance specialist to work on Fair Labor Standards Act provisions within 90 days. The compliance monitor will review company policies immediately and provide training at all facilities the company operates and monitor and audit Fayette’s compliance for at least three years.

Other requirements from the judgment include maintaining accurate records of all employees, including date of birth and assigned work tasks. The company must also impose disciplinary sanctions, including termination or suspension, for any management personnel responsible for child labor violations after the order date.

Fayette, at the direction of the DOL, would also establish a toll-free number for people to anonymously report child labor compliance issues.

Earlier in May, the DOL entered a consent judgment with several California poultry processors and distributors to pay $4.8 million in fines and wages who also were under child labor scrutiny.