Tyson Foods is facing a government investigation into claims the US meat giant employed children as young as 11 at its facilities.
The US Department of Labor (DoL) searched the Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm brands owner’s Green Forest and Rogers plants in Arkansas last month after it received two separate anonymous tip-offs over the summer that minors were possibly working at the meat producer’s factories.
It is investigating whether Tyson has violated the country’s Fair Labor Standards Act.
In one of its search warrants, seen by Just Food, a DoL investigator said she had received a complaint on 4 June from someone who had “overheard children between 11 and 13 years old discussing their employment at the Green Forest Tyson Foods processing plant on the night shift from about 11pm to 7am or 8am”.
In a separate tip-off, also sent in June, a teacher submitted a complaint to the DoL after a 14-year-old student shared details of working at a Tyson facility in Rogers over the summer.
Following up on this, investigators staked out the Green Forest facility and reported, in the search warrant application, that “among those we observed entering and exiting the facility were multiple individuals whose appearance and body language indicated were potentially minor employees below the age of 16”.
Photographs of those workers alleged to be children were attached to the search warrant application.
“Based on their appearance, dress and demeanour, I believe them to be minors,” the investigator said.
It was suggested minors could be working at Tyson in hazardous conditions, such as on a “kill floor”.
Last year, the DoL launched a probe into Tyson and other meat producers after a cleaning contractor was found to have hired children to work shifts in various meatpacking facilities in Arkansas and around the country. Investigators did not find Tyson in violation of labour laws for that investigation.
Just Food has asked Tyson for its response to the DoL investigation into the child-labour claims, outside of US office hours.
