Food manufacturer fined $30K for violating federal child labor laws

A national food manufacturing company has agreed to comply with federal child labor laws at all its production facilities and warehouses across America following a consent order and judgement entered by the U.S. District Court of Minnesota. An investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor earlier this year found that Monogram Meat Snacks LLC, a subsidiary of Monogram Food Solutions LLC, employed teenagers to operate meat-processing equipment, which is a violation of federal child labor hazardous orders. The department’s Wage and Hour Division, which conducted the investigation, objected to the shipment of goods from the company’s Chandler, Minnesota, facility, issuing an “Objection to Shipment letter” that cited the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “hot goods” provision. This provision ensures that goods manufactured using child labor can’t be shipped. Monogram Food Solutions has agreed to pay $30,276 in civil money penalties.

In a recent quote, Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman said, “As we made clear earlier this year, the Department of Labor and the Biden-Harris administration are committed to combating the increase we have seen in child labor violations. In this case, Monogram should have never allowed two children to operate hazardous equipment. After our initial investigation, Monogram Meat Snacks and its parent company have agreed to take important steps to prevent future child labor violations. Employers are legally responsible for training their management, hiring specialists and front-line supervisors to recognize potential child labor violations and to take all appropriate actions to verify that they are not employing children and other young people illegally.”