Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

There are millions of undocumented workers in the US using fake identities to get jobs.<p>Both major parties support this system. Some Republican interests enjoy the access to dirt-cheap labor. Some Democratic interests want immigrants to be able to find jobs despite it being illegal to employ them.<p>So we end up with a system where employers have no easy way to verify that an employee is who they say they are and has a legal right to work any specific job.<p>This is such an easy problem to solve, but entrenched interests would rather we all play dumb and occasionally slap a business on the wrist when they get too far out of bounds.<p>I’d be curious where these kids end up after this. My guess is they will not end up in schools but will rather end up doing undocumented farm work.

&quot;Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the department assessed PSSI $15,138 for each minor-aged employee who was employed in violation of the law. The amount is the maximum civil money penalty allowed by federal law.&quot;<p>Wow, I knew that labor laws in the US were toothless but to have it spelled out like this is so depressing. A max penalty of ~15k per violation, just bravo team, bravo.

&gt; The amount is the maximum civil money penalty allowed by federal law.<p>Sounds like an update to federal law is in order, at the very least tying that number to inflation (or perhaps to corporate profits?).

Meanwhile Iowa proposes bill to do exactly this. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.weareiowa.com&#x2F;amp&#x2F;article&#x2F;money&#x2F;business&#x2F;sf-167-worker-shortage-youth-employment-teens-labor-jobs&#x2F;524-07b4ed86-39b9-4b8d-a3d8-246644a6f054" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.weareiowa.com&#x2F;amp&#x2F;article&#x2F;money&#x2F;business&#x2F;sf-167-...</a>

Did the company make more than $1.5M in additional revenue due to employing those 100+ kids (plus the others that are likely to have never been identified)?

this is why food is cheap people. I used to drive corn and pea combines in high school, and in the farming community it&#x27;s not uncommon to have kids driving tractors as well (granted this is usually a family run farm). It&#x27;s likely that the people working in the factories there knew the kids or families and made an exception to allow them to start early (still technically illegal I know). it&#x27;s not child slave labor, its kids trying to make money.

I&#x27;d never let any of my kids work in a meat processing facility. The danger element alone with combined with unpredictable children sounds like The Jungle just waiting to happen again. Still 100 kids out of all the employees seems like a really small fraction, to the point where I wonder if these kids were all related to employees.<p>I&#x27;ve got little sympathy for the company here, but seeing how scarce certain items are at the grocery store, how prices have risen and how difficult it is to secure labor for those jobs I can understand why they would have broken the rules even knowing they&#x27;d pay for it eventually, just to keep the wheels moving.

A couple of highlights:<p>&gt; KIELER, WI – One of the nation’s largest food safety sanitation services providers has paid $1.5 million in civil money penalties after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the company employed at least 102 children – from 13 to 17 years of age – in hazardous occupations and had them working overnight shifts at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states.<p>&gt; Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the department assessed PSSI $15,138 for each minor-aged employee who was employed in violation of the law. The amount is the maximum civil money penalty allowed by federal law.<p>Child labor is one issue to deal with but I am getting pissed off at the non-enforcement&#x2F;selective enforcement of laws we are seeing in society, it doesn&#x27;t matter what laws we have if they aren&#x27;t enforced and routinely ignored.

I got my first job at 15. Is that no longer legal? Is the issue here the specific conditions?

On a related note Arkansas just rollback regulations to employ kids. If the past month is any indication of what happens when you rollback regulations there is no way this will end poorly for some of the kids.

I used to do this sort of overnight cleaning but in medical. Based on my experience I would be very surprised if the overwhelming majority of these kids weren&#x27;t a) immigrants and b) working the same shift least one of their parents. I wouldn&#x27;t say it was typical to have teenagers around but when you saw one it almost always turned out that they carpool with a parent even if they didn&#x27;t necessarily work in proximity to each other.

&gt; had employed at least 31 children, from 13 to 17 years of age, in hazardous occupations to clean dangerous powered equipment during overnight shifts

I mean if you can get away with it for over a year then you probably came out ahead

Shouldn&#x27;t someone go to prison for this?

Where did they get the kids? Is this trafficking? Terrible parents?

That fine should directly be paid out to the kids in the form of a 529A college fund, or something similar.<p>EDIT ;<p>NEVER invest in a 529 college plan. They are money grabbing frauds.<p>I put $40,000 into a 529a plan in 2004.<p>In 2022 it was worth $89,000<p>--<p>They couldnt even provide a good return over 20 years.<p>They then berated me for complaining that they &quot;only&quot; doubled my money in !20 years.<p>The problem is that the banks that this was desposited in ~2004 -- they failed and were sold several times in the 2008-2012 banking grifting.<p>And they couldnt give me ANY data on the tranfer of accounts or companies when they befuddled the accounts together. They literally treated me as if I was berating THEM.<p>HN was a laughter of shitty advice.<p>So take mine with a ton of salt, because thats what you shall be tasting, marinated in rage, when you discover you invested in an institution that literally steals your money and marks it.

Is it legal to work in the USA if you are 13 years old?

&gt; Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the department assessed PSSI $15,138 for each minor-aged employee who was employed in violation of the law. The amount is the maximum civil money penalty allowed by federal law.

I saw a POV documentary on PBS about kids from undocumented families and some of them are US citizens since the kids were born here.<p>But there were many instances where these kids work nights, then try to go to school during the day. It&#x27;s the life they have to live to try and help support their family.<p>It&#x27;s a terrible situation, but almost always better than what they faced in their home country.

Man, I resent that corporations have similar rights as people but if they were actually treated as people, they wouldn’t just be fined, they would be thrown in corporate jail where all operations cease. I wonder how quickly corporate responsibility would improve if that were the case?

Remember folks fines are just written off as business expense. Unless people responsible are jailed long time this will just continue. What happens then ? Pay the fine and repeat cycle.

Imagine exploiting children for labor and robbing them of their childhood. And then only paying a 1.5m fine.<p>Who gets that money btw? I&#x27;m 99% sure - not the children.