KANSAS CITY, Mo. — U.S. Senator Josh Hawley is calling on the Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate Tyson Foods after a whistleblower accused the company of illegal child labor practices.
This week, Senator Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, urging her to investigate Tyson Foods in light of these allegations.
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“As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, I have been contacted by a whistleblower who alleges that Tyson Foods used child workers at one of its processing plants—in likely violation of federal child labor law,” Senator Hawley wrote in the letter. “I have opened an investigation in my Subcommittee. Given your role in enforcing federal labor law, I urge you to fully investigate these troubling allegations immediately.”
Whistleblower claims to have seen underage workers
Hawley says in the letter that the whistleblower, a former Tyson Foods employee, alleges that they personally witnessed underage workers and also received multiple reports from hourly Tyson employees about child workers in the plant.
According to the allegations, these child workers were employed by a third-party entity contracted by Tyson for work in the plant.
The whistleblower claims that Tyson retaliated against them after reporting concerns to company superiors about child workers employed at the plant.
FOX4 reached out to Tyson Foods Wednesday afternoon but has not gotten a response.
Food sanitation contractor employed minors in 2023: DOL
In 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI) employed minors at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states.
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“The company employed at least 102 children, from 13 to 17 years of age, in hazardous occupations and had them working overnight shifts,” the department said in a 2023 news release.
PSSI was found to have employed seven minors at two Tyson Foods facilities in Arkansas and Tennessee, according to the DOL.
