Labor Department: Cleaning company put kids at risk in packing plants

A cleaning company accused of putting kids to work in dangerous graveyard shifts at meatpacking plants, including one in Nebraska,  has been ordered to appear in federal court ten days from now.

In the meantime, the company, Packers Sanitation Services Incorporated has been ordered to immediately stop “employing oppressive child labor” pending that November 23 hearing.

According to the lawsuit filed by the Labor Department in Nebraska Federal Court, PSSI is illegally using child workers, at the JBS plant in Grand Island, along with two plants in Minnesota.

PSSI is accused of putting a 13-year-old and a reported 30 other children between the ages of 13 and 17 to work cleaning “power-driven machines” including “bone-cutting saws.”

According to federal records, PSSI has yet to respond to the lawsuit; the company has not been immediately available for comment.