Company forced to pay up $1.5 million for making kids clean meatpacking plant

A sanitation company that hired kids to work shifts cleaning a meatpacking plant has been fined $1.5 million by the Department of Labor, reported The Daily Beast on Friday.

"The move comes three months after the Department of Labor launched an investigation into the company — Packers Sanitation Services — for employing at least 102 children, some as young as 13, to clean industrial equipment in meat-packing plants across the U.S. during overnight shifts," reported Katie Hawkinson.

Federal investigators found 31 of these kids working directly on "kill floors," per a prior report. According to officials, some of the children in these jobs were injured, "including at least two who suffered caustic chemical burns."

Packers Sanitation Service told The Washington Post that they have brought in an outside law firm to audit and improve their practices to prevent future violations.

The fight to ban child labor in dangerous jobs, and heavily protect the rights of children in the handful of jobs they could safely work, was a massive battle that took up much of the first half of the 20th century, culminating in the passage of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.

Some lawmakers are trying to re-legalize child labor to fill shortages in certain industries, including meatpacking. Last week, Republicans in Iowa introduced legislation that would permit 14- and 15-year-olds to work in laundry and industrial freezers in meatpacking plants, provided these areas are segregated from the slaughtering and processing areas.