Perdue Farms will pay more than $4 million dollars after the U.S. Department of Labor found children working in hazardous conditions in the company’s Accomac facility.
Perdue’s $4 million payments will be split between the affected children and advocates for victims of child labor exploitation. Perdue and contractor SMX, which was hired to staff the Eastern Shore chicken plant, will also each pay a $125,000 civil penalty.
Both companies also agreed to conditions including not hiring minors in certain locations, providing mandatory child labor training for managers and employees and establishing a tip line for employees to report compliance issues.
“There is no single enforcement action or lawsuit that will stop unlawful child labor, but strong enforcement coupled with companies willing to come to the table and take responsibility is vital,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda in a release. “Perdue Farms has substantial influence in the poultry processing industry. By entering into this agreement, Perdue Farms is taking meaningful action to root out child labor not only at its facilities but to recognize its corporate responsibility to combat child labor more broadly.”
In 2024, Department of Labor investigators found Perdue and SMX employed children as far back as 2020 in what it called hazardous conditions at Perdue’s Accomac plant.
The investigation was spurred by a 2023 New York Times Magazine report about a 14-year-old boy who nearly lost his arm working in a Perdue facility.
The children working in the Eastern Shore plant were deboning and processing chicken and other products using electric knives and a heat sealing press. They were also found to be working until after 7 p.m. during school weeks.
Both of those are violations of federal child labor laws, the Department of Labor said in a release announcing the agreement.
