Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., a Wisconsin-based meatpacking janitorial service under scrutiny for hiring minors to clean slaughterhouses, including in Minnesota, will lay off 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.
In a statement provided to the Star Tribune, a PSSI spokesperson confirmed that JBS ended the contract.
"This will impact all PSSI employees at this location, which is disappointing news for the local team and for PSSI," the spokesperson said. "Those impacted will be paid through the end of the contract, which ends in January."
The company repeated its rule against employing minors.
A representative for JBS did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
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 in five states, including at the JBS pork facility in Worthington and at Turkey Valley in Marshall.
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, minors are not allowed to work jobs found to be "hazardous," which includes the cleaning of meat-processing facilities. The Labor Department's investigation of PSSI was triggered when Nebraska law enforcement reported underage employees with burns caused by cleaning chemicals.
While PSSI, which is owned by the private equity group Blackstone, has not fought allegations that it illegally employed minors, it has defended its hiring record.
In court documents, PSSI said a Labor Department search of a plant in Sedalia, Mo., turned up no abusive minor violations. Moreover, the company has suggested that employees secured fake identification documents — sometimes with the assistance of PSSI supervisors and employees — to skirt a company-wide stricture against hiring minors.
In one instance, the company suspended (with pay, pending a review) a plant manager in Worthington who federal investigators say facilitated fake IDs to prospective employees.
According to the notice from DEED, the PSSI jobs were not unionized. PSSI cleans hundreds of meat-processing facilities across the country, with over 15,000 employees.
