Chicken plants cheated workers on pay, broke child labor laws in Mississippi, feds say
Three chicken processing plants in Mississippi are accused of paying their workers below the minimum wage — with one accused of cheating employees out of overtime pay and illegally employing a minor, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Friday.
Federal officials say they investigated the following plants:
Peco Foods, operating in Canton, MS; Headquartered in Tuscaloosa, AL.
Koch Foods in Morton, MS; Headquartered out of Park Ridge, IL.
Pearl River Foods in Carthage, MS; Headquartered in Gainesville, GA.
Management at those locations is accused of shortchanging workers by tens of thousands of dollars in multiple ways, the Department of Labor alleges.
On multiple occasions, officials say, the plants didn’t give workers their final paychecks.
Pearl River Foods illegally deducted employee’s pay to cover the cost of mandatory items like gloves and aprons, causing them to earn less than minimum wage, according to the department.
Koch Foods underpaid employees by excluding production bonuses when calculating overtime pay, the Department of Labor says. The same facility also is accused of hiring a 15-year-old to work in meat processing, for which they were fined $1,693. The minimum age to work in that particular profession is 18, officials say.
In all, the plants were ordered to pay $45,719 in back wages to 129 employees, according to the department.
“Employers must pay their employees all of the wages they have earned for all of the hours they have worked, no later than their regularly scheduled payday,” Audrey Hall, wage and hour division district director, in Jackson, Mississippi, said. “In addition, child labor laws exist to ensure that when young people work, the work does not jeopardize their health and well-being.”
These plants have been the target of federal enforcement before, McClatchy News reports. They were among seven facilities targeted in a massive 2019 ICE raid, which resulted in the arrest of 680 undocumented workers, and criminal charges against four plant managers.
Federal officials called the raid “the largest single-state worksite enforcement operation in our nation’s history,” McClatchy reported.
Of the nearly 700 immigrants caught in the ICE raid, about 300 were released soon after. Those remaining either faced criminal charges, deportation, detention, or release if they agreed to appear before an immigration judge, McClatchy reported.
The raid had a chilling effect on undocumented workers across the southeast, further fueled by rumors of more ICE action against businesses ranging from casinos to other meat processing plants.
In Georgia, hundreds of employees at several poultry plants walked out in the middle of the workday after rumors swirled on social media of an impending raid, McClatchy reported.
While four Mississippi plant managers were criminally charged, no charges have been announced for higher level administrators.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Chicken plants cheated workers on pay, broke child labor laws in Mississippi, feds say."