Agribusiness  January 21, 2025

JBS to pay $4M to settle child-labor violations

GREELEY — Greeley-based JBS USA Food Co. has reached a $4 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor over for child-labor violations.

The Jan. 13, 2025, agreement requires JBS to hold its supply chain, third-party contractors and service providers accountable for illegal child labor. The company also will create a targeted advertising campaign to raise awareness about unlawful child labor practices.

“Under this agreement, JBS USA Food Co. has adopted creative and forward-thinking compliance measures to combat illegal child labor,” Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman said in a prepared statement. “JBS has taken responsibility for children performing dangerous work at its facilities by proposing concrete and enforceable solutions to address those issues, setting the standard as a market leader in preventing illegal youth employment.”  

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JBS will fund $4 million toward preventing illegal child labor and supporting victims of child labor nationwide, prioritizing its efforts in Greeley; Guntersville, Alabama; Ottumwa, Iowa; Worthington, Minnesota; and Grand Island, Nebraska.

“Host companies like JBS have enormous leverage to help prevent child labor in their supply chains and even more broadly in the industry,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda. “With this agreement, JBS USA Food Co. is taking significant steps to ensure children are not put in harm’s way at its facilities or by its contractors.”

The agreement also requires JBS to host a symposium focused on preventing illegal child labor, hire a child-labor compliance specialist, maintain a toll-free ethics hotline and other measures.

The Labor Department since 2022 has investigated third-party contractors that provide sanitation services at meat-packing plants and service providers of poultry-catching operations across the U.S. The investigation found that JBS’s third-party service providers “employed children in dangerous jobs and during overnight shifts at the company’s facilities in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska,” according to a press release.

Greeley-based JBS USA Food Co. has reached a $4 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor over for child-labor violations.

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