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full screen A cleaning company in the USA hired dozens of children to clean dangerous machines in slaughterhouses in the USA. Archive image. Photo: Julio Cortez/AP/TT
A cleaning company in the United States has agreed to pay $650,000 in fines for allowing dozens of children to clean dangerous machinery at slaughterhouses.
The US Department of Labor states that the company has also assured that they will stop employing children. US law says people under the age of 18 cannot work in slaughterhouses, but the company allowed 15 children to work at a facility in Virginia and at least nine at one in Iowa. The work involved, among other things, cleaning meat saws and machines that split animal skulls.
At the Virginia facility, a 14-year-old was seriously injured while cleaning a conveyor belt in the chicken leg packing department.
According to statistics from the department, illegal child labor in the United States has increased by 88 percent since 2019.