Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., a Wisconsin-based meatpacking janitorial service under scrutiny for hiring minors to clean slaughterhouses, including in Minnesota, will fire 121 employees at a Worthington pork plant after JBS, the plant's owner, terminated its contract with the cleaners.

The permanent layoffs of the cleaning workers will begin Jan. 21, according to a Minnesota Employment and Economic Development news release on Tuesday. The WARN notice from DEED says the layoffs are due to the "loss of their sanitation services contract with JBS USA - Worthington."

"Recently, we received unforeseen notice from JBS USA - Worthington that it has decided to contract the Worthington MN location meaning that PSSI will cease services at this plant effective January 22, 2023," said John Neuhalfen, a senior vice president with PSSI, in a letter to DEED on Tuesday.

Neither PSSI nor JBS responded immediately to requests for comment.

A week ago, PSSI settled a civil action lawsuit filed by the U.S. Labor Department in federal court in Nebraska, agreeing to a range of government oversight after Wage and Hour Division investigators searched two plants this fall and found dozens of illegal underage workers cleaning slaughterhouses.

As of early December, Labor Department attorneys allege as many as 50 minors were employed at multiple sites, including at the JBS pork facility in Worthington and at Turkey Valley in Marshall.

The company has not fought allegations they employed minors in the occupation deemed "hazardous" under law. But the company has suggested that employees secured fabricated identification documents — sometimes from plant employees — to skirt a company-wide stricture against hiring minors.