US Department of Labor searches Northwest Arkansas Tyson Foods plants over alleged child labor

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A pair of Tyson Foods plants in Northwest Arkansas were searched last month by the U.S. Department of Labor after court documents revealed child labor accusations.

In September, the DOL filed applications for inspection warrants for the Tyson Foods plants in Rogers and Green Forest. The applications included narratives from an investigator at the Houston District Office for the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor.

They claim there is reason to believe minors were employed at the Tyson locations in Green Forest and Rogers.

Warrants included in the applications were seeking records related to the possible employment of minors and the reason for the searches was to gather documents related to Tyson Foods employees or affiliates and contractors, the application said.

Reviews of the two processing plants started in June after the Wage and Hour Division received anonymous tips.

In the Rogers application, the Wage and Hour Division cited a tip from a teacher at a nearby school who reported that one of their 14-year-old students talked about working at the facility with his mother for the summer.

In the Green Forest application, a mother of middle schoolers overheard children between the ages of 11 and 13 talk about their employment at that plant on the night shift, which ran from 11 p.m. to around 7 or 8 a.m. The complainant said they were heard talking about how they did not know how to get money from their paycheck out of an ATM.

Investigators assigned in July conducted observations outside of both plants and watched workers entering and leaving. They found during the observations multiple people who appeared to be “potentially minor employees below the age of 16,” court docs said.

One of the investigators noted the children were believed to have been working in possibly hazardous conditions.

Included in the applications was a narrative by Acting Secretary for the Department of Labor Julie Su:

“The Acting Secretary has received information that Tyson Foods employs minors. Suspected minors may be working outside of the hours permitted by the [Fair Labor Standards Act]. Additionally, minors may be working in potentially hazardous occupations and below the minimum age standards for such employment involving slaughtering, meat and poultry packing, processing, or rendering in violation of the child labor provisions.”

Court docs said the search warrant for the Green Forest plant was executed at 3 a.m. on September 11 and the Rogers plant around 7 a.m. on the same day.

KNWA/FOX24 has reached out to Tyson Foods for comment and a spokesperson for the company said:

“To be clear, we do not allow the employment of anyone under the age of 18 in any of our facilities, and we do not facilitate, excuse or in any other way participate in the use of child labor. We take the enforcement of all labor laws very seriously, and we have procedures in place to verify the age of all team members, and fully participate with the federal government’s E-Verify and IMAGE programs. We have fully cooperated with the Department of Labor, and they have not provided us with any information that would suggest that any of our policies or practices were violated.”

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