Investigations Involving Tyson Foods
Child labour practices in the US meat-processing industry have faced significant scrutiny, including federal investigations. Previous enforcement actions involving Tyson Foods and its partners include:
- January 2025 – USDOL settlement with QSI: The USDOL reached a $400,000 settlement with cleaning contractor QSI after finding child labour violations in eight states. The New York Times reported that this included a Tyson Foods plant in Virginia, where underage employees had been employed to clean slaughterhouse facilities.
- September 2023 – Federal investigation into Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms: The USDOL launched a federal investigation following reports of migrant children working overnight shifts cleaning Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms plants. Both companies stated they had zero-tolerance policies for child labour. In January 2025, Perdue Farms settled for $4 million over violations at its Virginia plant, while the investigation into Tyson Foods remains ongoing as of January 2025, according to reporting by the New York Times.
- February 2023 – Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI) Case: The USDOL found over 100 children employed by PSSI, a cleaning contractor for slaughterhouses. Among them, six minors worked at Tyson Foods plants in Arkansas. The contractor, PSSI, was fined $1.5 million for its role in these violations.
Beyond Tyson Foods, other major meat and food-processing companies—including JBS, The Exclusive Poultry Inc, Seaboard Triumph Foods and a network of California poultry processors and distributors – have faced significant investigations and penalties.
Additional Context
On 10 March 2025, Hawley also introduced bipartisan legislation, reintroducing a bill aimed at strengthening enforcement of child labour laws, alongside Democrat Senator Cory Booker. The bill would bar companies with serious, repeated, or pervasive child labour violations from receiving federal contracts. The bill would also require companies seeking federal contracts to disclose any child labour violations by themselves or their subcontractors in the previous three years.