Meat processor pays another $110,000 to settle child labor complaint
A southwestern Minnesota meat processor has agreed to pay $110,000 to settle additional child labor allegations.
In July, the U.S. Labor Department found that Monogram Foods had illegally employed a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old at its meat snacks plant in Chandler, Minn., and fined the company $30,000.
The investigation continued, and inspectors found that nine additional minors had worked there, including two as young as 15. Most of the teens had been operating hazardous machinery.
Federal officials say that Monogram, which is based in Tennessee, had fired all of the workers this summer.
The Labor Department says it's focusing resources on combating child labor after documenting a 69 percent increase in illegally employed minors since 2018.
In February, Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation paid $1.5 million to settle allegations that it hired more than 100 children to clean slaughterhouses in eight states, including Minnesota.
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