The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into an agreement with a Chattanooga cleaning contractor that requires the employer to pay $400,000 in civil money penalties, monitor and audit policies to prevent the employment of children in dangerous jobs, and maintain a toll-free number for reporting concerns about the illegal employment of children.
The agreement follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found QSI LLC, headquartered in Chattanooga, employed children on overnight sanitation shifts at 13 meat and poultry processing facilities from January 2021 through February 2024 in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Violations were found in Alabama, California, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.
“The Department of Labor is determined to stop our nation’s children from being endangered in jobs for which they should never be hired and to leverage our enforcement work to affect industries,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda. “With this agreement, QSI LLC is taking responsibility for its historical violations and agreeing to strong compliance practices at all of its work locations.”
In addition to the penalties for the child labor violations, the agreement requires QSI LLC to do the following:
- Re-survey all of its work locations to determine if any employees are under the age of 18.
- Review and evaluate child labor compliance training materials for managers.
- Maintain accurate records of all employees, including date of birth and work tasks assigned.
- Incorporate an anti-child labor provision in its third-party contracts and attach Fact Sheet #43 on Child Labor in Non-Agriculture Occupations to all contracts for its services.
- Maintain a toll-free hotline number for people to seek guidance and/or to report child labor compliance concerns anonymously.
“The safety of young workers will always be the top priority for the U.S. Department of Labor,” said Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman. “The department has taken significant steps to prevent and address illegal child labor across the country. This agreement, like the others the department has secured, is about keeping kids safe now and in the future.”
Since 2022, the department has investigated various third-party contractors that provide sanitation services at meat packing establishments throughout the nation. The department’s investigations into QSI revealed employment of children in dangerous jobs and during overnight shifts at the facilities in Alabama, California, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia, it was stated.
Two similar investigations of cleaning contractors operating in Iowa led the department to obtain consent judgments against two other companies after investigations found the two companies employing children illegally.
In fiscal year 2024, department investigators found more than 4,000 children had been employed in violation of federal child labor laws. The department addressed those violations by assessing employers more than $15.1 million in civil money penalties, an 89 percent increase from the previous year. The division continues to prioritize protecting children and currently has over 1,000 open child labor investigations.