By Laura Strickler, Julia Ainsley and Didi Martinez -
NBC News
A company that the Labor Department says used more than 100 children to clean slaughterhouses hired the same child twice under different names, an internal company document shows.
A June 2021 disciplinary report reviewed by Noticias Telemundo sister network NBC News reveals that Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI) disciplined an employee who hired the same “known minor” twice in six months under two different identities.
The employee who made the hires was demoted and suspended for three days and required to undergo a "hiring policy review," according to the document.
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The employee did not respond to a request for comment.
PSSI spokeswoman Gina Swenson said the employee "has been on personal leave and is not actively working for the company."
Wisconsin-based PSSI, owned by investment management firm Blackstone, was cited Friday by the US Department of Labor for “systemic” child labor violations that indicated “a company-wide failure ” which spanned 13 centers in eight states.
A photo taken by a Department of Labor investigator shows a boy who worked for Packers Sanitation Services Inc. cleaning a slaughterhouse in Grand Island, Nebraska. US Department of Labor.
The Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations division continues to investigate whether the children, mostly undocumented immigrants, were part of a human smuggling ring, according to DHS officials.
PSSI is not the subject of that investigation and has not been accused of wrongdoing by DHS.
A former PSSI official, who asked that NBC News not be identified, said seeing children working for the company made them "sick."
They said they weren't surprised by the Labor Department's findings — they were just surprised that the Labor Department took so long to discover the underage workers.
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“There are things going on in the plant that adults don't feel comfortable seeing.
You cannot walk through [the plant] without staining yourself with animal parts or blood," they said.
Shannon Rebolledo, a 17-year veteran of the Department of Labor who led the investigation into PSSI's use of child labor, said she had "never seen child labor violations to this extent" and that employees of a Grand Island, Nebraska, plant attempted to hide evidence by erasing digital messages during the investigation.
“I have never seen an employer or their representative so blatantly impede my investigation,” Rebolledo said.
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In a statement, PSSI said the company cooperated with the Labor Department's investigation.
"PSSI cooperated with DOL's investigation -- contrary to any false claims to the contrary -- including facilitating multiple facility visits, employee interviews, and producing more than 100 million pages of documents, and fully shares It is the DOL's goal to ensure that no one under the age of 18 works for PSSI,” said Swenson, the PSSI spokesman.
"We've also fired two local managers cited in the DOL's filing for allegedly hindering their investigation — further illustrating that commitment."
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In a statement, Blackstone stated: “We are pleased that PSSI has resolved this matter with the Department of Labor.
PSSI has an absolute zero tolerance policy against the employment of anyone under the age of 18 and is fully committed to ensuring its application at all local plants."
"PSSI has continued to enhance its already extensive procedures to prevent spoofing, including recent moves to conduct multiple audits and additional training, and hire more third-party compliance experts," they added.
false identities
Michael Lazzeri, Regional Wage and Hour Administrator for the Department of Labor, stated: "Our investigation found that Packers Sanitation Services' systems were flagging some young workers as minors, but the company ignored the flags."
After the Labor Department announced that it had found 50 children working for PSSI in December, the company signed a consent decree saying it would comply with child labor laws.
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Swenson said in an email: “Our company has a strong corporate commitment to our zero-tolerance policy against employment of children under the age of 18, and fully shares the Department of Labor's goal of ensuring full compliance at all locations.
As parents and citizens, we don't want a single person under the age of 18 to work for PSSI, period — and we take extensive steps to prevent individuals at the local level from circumventing our comprehensive procedures."
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The former manager said that the company did not perform sufficient screening of identification documentation when hiring staff members, and that the company hired many undocumented immigrants who used false identities to get through the government's E-regulation compliance system. verify.
“In this industry there are many people who are undocumented workers.
Many times it is because they are not going to pay well enough to hire people in the United States who want to do it,” said the former manager.
The former manager said that while some employees who presented false documents were turned away, it was common for workers who presented obviously false identity documents to be hired, as long as the documents stated that they were legal and of legal age.
“You can look at the ID and realize that the person on it doesn't look anything like the person in front of you,” Swenson replied to NBC News: “This is flat out false, period.
We have made it very clear that we do not want anyone under the age of 18 to work for the company.
We have trained and retrained our employees on how to actively detect identity theft, as part of our broader efforts to enforce this absolute prohibition on employing anyone under the age of 18."
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Swenson said the company uses the government's E-Verify system for new hires, as well as "multiple audits and biometrics" to verify identities.
Swenson contended that if an underage employee is able to circumvent E-Verify, it is "through deliberate identity theft and/or employment fraud at a local plant."
"common knowledge"
Child labor allegations by PSSI at a slaughterhouse on Grand Island date back to 2016, according to a local police report obtained by NBC News.
The report says an officer was called to the local high school because a 14-year-old girl had "injuries to her hands."
The document shows that the allegations were investigated as "child abuse."
A Grand Island police spokesman said the injuries were from the girl's work at PSSI.
Police determined that they were from the girl's work through a conversation with the girl and her guardian.
The matter was referred to the local prosecutor, and the girl's guardian was investigated but not charged, according to a local police official.
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Local school officials told Labor Department investigators it was "public knowledge" that the boys worked night shifts at the local meatpacking plant and often fell asleep in class, according to court documents.
Audrey Lutz, former executive director of a local Nebraska nonprofit group that has been helping child laborers on Grand Island, said the Guatemalan child laborers she met were clearly children: “They're young.
They are naive.
They are short in stature.
They seek a better life.
And you can see that in his eyes."
Lutz said the boys were too scared to talk to NBC News and didn't know they had been barred from doing the job.
“These children come from countries where it is very common for young people 12 years old or even younger to support their families,” said Lutz.
“But in this country, we reserve dangerous jobs like cleaning meatpacking plants for adults who can make decisions for themselves about the dangers and risks involved.”
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The company paid a $1.5 million fine to the Department of Labor: $15,138 for each child illegally employed.
Labor Department officials say that is the maximum penalty under federal law.
Lutz believes that, beyond the fine, greater accountability is necessary.
“The federal government should hold those who handle money accountable.
Who made money off of children cleaning a slaughterhouse?
He added that he wants a criminal investigation to be opened.
"I think the Department of Justice should come in and do a full investigation and find out who is responsible for employing so many children, not just in Grand Island, Nebraska, but across the country."
Labor Department officials say what department investigators found at PSSI is part of growing national concern.
They point to agency data showing a 69% nationwide increase in minors employed in violation of child labor laws from 2018 to 2022.
