Sanitation company pays $1.5 million penalty for hiring children for 'hazardous' factory work like cleaning beef bone saws, officials say

• The US Labor Department filed a complaint against PSSI following a three-month investigation into unlawful child labor claims in November.
• PSSI was charged $1.5 million in penalties as a result of the investigation, officials said.

An industrial cleaning service was fined $1.5 million for employing dozens of children to work dangerous overnight shifts causing injuries, including a chemical burn suffered by a 13-year-old, according to the US Department of Labor.

In a news release on Friday, the DOL said Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI) was fined over $1 million in civil money penalties after investigators found the company employed at least 102 children ages 13 to 17 in "hazardous occupations." The figure is over triple the amount of minor-aged workers initially reported in a November news release.

Minors performed jobs like cleaning power equipment, such as bone and meat saws, during overnight shifts, according to the DOL, and many of them — including the 13-year-old — suffered burns and other injuries on the job.

The DOL filed a complaint seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction against the food safety sanitation service following its investigation.

Months ago, a representative for PSSI said the company was surprised by the Labor Department's complaint as its corporate office was "cooperating with their inquiry, producing extensive documents and responses."

PSSI was hit with a fee of $15,138 per minor-aged worker — the maximum amount in civil money penalty allowed by federal law — under the Fair Labor Standards Act, officials said.

The department specifically named PSSI contracts with JBS USA, a beef slaughtering and meatpacking facility in Nebraska, and turkey processing plant Turkey Valley Farms in Minnesota.

"The child labor violations in this case were systemic and reached across eight states, and clearly indicate a corporate-wide failure by Packers Sanitation Services at all levels," Jessica Looman, principal deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, said in the news release.

"These children should never have been employed in meat packing plants and this can only happen when employers do not take responsibility to prevent child labor violations from occurring in the first place."

The DOL's Wage and Hour Division said it began investigating PSSI, which is headquartered in Wisconsin, in August after being tipped off to potential violations of child labor laws.

PSSI was founded in 1973. It employs around 17,000 workers to provide contract services including cleaning and pest prevention to about 700 food processing facilities in the US, the release said. According to the company's official site, the staff includes food sanitors, microbiologists, equipment engineers, and safety specialists.

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, minors younger than 14-years-old are prohibited from working and 14- and 15 year olds aren't allowed to work later than 9 p.m. during the summer months and 7 p.m. after Labor Day.

In its complaint filed in the US District Court of Nebraska, the department alleges the company intimidated minor workers, and "deleted and manipulated employee files" to interfere with the investigation.

In a statement to CBS News, PSSI said it was "pleased to have finalized this settlement figure" with the DOL. The company added that no children are currently employed, and many hadn't worked for the business in years.

But a PSSI spokesperson said in a statement to Insider in November that it has a "zero tolerance" policy around hiring employees under 18.

"PSSI has an absolute company-wide prohibition against the employment of anyone under the age of 18 and zero tolerance for any violation of that policy -- period," the statement read. The company verifies employees thoroughly with "document verification, biometrics, and multiple layers of audits."

The statement continued: "While rogue individuals could of course seek to engage in fraud or identity theft, we are confident in our company's strict compliance policies and will defend ourselves vigorously against these claims."