Mar-Jac Poultry, the largest employer in Walker County, is facing accusations of employing underage workers in violation of federal labor laws.
The Department of Labor’s attorneys are requesting a judge to shut down the Jasper plant for 30 days. This injunction aims to prevent companies from profiting off child labor, as per the Fair Labor Standards Act. According to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor, six teenagers were employed at the Jasper chicken plant for several months using forged documents after successfully passing the e-verify system, which is designed to verify legal work authorization.
The company claims that these minors were terminated once discovered and that they were not operating heavy machinery, but were instead assigned to tasks like hanging chickens and removing wings.
Mar-Jac Poultry argues that a 30-day shutdown would negatively impact over 1,000 workers, leading to temporary layoffs and necessitating the destruction of millions of chickens, which would end up in landfills.
WBRC reached out to the attorney representing Mar-Jac Poultry but has not received a response.
Federal laws prohibit 16- and 17-year-olds from working in most meat and poultry processing jobs.
