Gerber Poultry confirms probe after report feds found minors working in Kidron plant

Bryce Buyakie, Akron Beacon Journal
Updated ·2 min read
3

A Wayne County company confirmed it's under federal investigation for its employment practices Monday after NBC News reported federal agents found more than two dozen children, mostly from Guatemala, illegally working inside a poultry plant in Kidron.

Gerber's Poultry owns the meat processing and sanitation plant that produces Amish Farm Chicken, according to NBC News.

Homeland Security Investigations and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided the plant on the evening of Oct. 4, surrounding the facility and halting traffic to and from the plant before interviewing workers. NBC reported that no arrests were made at the time.

Labor incidents: Company hired over 100 children as young as 13 to clean meat processing plants, DOL says

Gerber Poultry said in a statement Monday that it takes the legal employment and safety of all its workers very seriously and that it uses formal identity verification procedures to make sure workers (both employees and contractors) are legally authorized to work.

"We also have strict policies against hiring minors in accordance with industry guidelines, rules and laws. As such, we were surprised to learn that our Kidron, Ohio plant is the subject of inquiry from federal law enforcement regarding the composition of our employees and some third-party contract employees," the company said

"We are fully cooperating with that investigation. While we have confidence in our process to ensure we comply with all federal regulations to verify eligibility for employment, we are actively reviewing our policies to ensure compliance at every level and will continue to review our relationships with third party vendors and their policies in similar fashion."

It is illegal in the U.S. for anyone under the age of 18 work in meatpacking plants or in any other hazardous occupation, according to the Federal Code of Regulations and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

This comes roughly three months after a 16-year-old boy died while working at a Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Mississippi, USA TODAY reported. This was the third death at the plant in three years.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Gerber Poultry confirms FBI probe after minor found working in plant