JBS USA has agreed to pay $4 million to “assist individuals and communities affected by unlawful child labor practices nationwide.”
By Lisa Held
January 16, 2025
The Department of Labor (DOL) today announced that the country’s largest meatpacker, JBS USA (whose parent company, JBS, is the largest global meat company), has agreed to pay $4 million to “assist individuals and communities affected by unlawful child labor practices nationwide.” The company also agreed to a list of other actions, including hiring a child labor compliance specialist and requiring child labor violation training to all of its third-party providers. The agreement comes after a DOL investigation started in 2022 found more than 4,000 children had been hired by those providers and were working overnight shifts at JBS facilities in four states, in violation of child labor laws.
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Lisa Held is Civil Eats’ senior staff reporter and contributing editor. Since 2015, she has reported on agriculture and the food system with an eye toward sustainability, equality, and health, and her stories have appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Mother Jones. In the past, she covered health and wellness and was an editor at Well+Good. She is based in Baltimore and has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. Read more >