Oversight & ethics enforcementChild protection

Labor Department found a sanitation contractor used 11 children for overnight cleaning at an Iowa pork plant; contractor fined and put under compliance monitoring

Confidence: Confirmed · 3 sourcesUnited States · Oct 12, 2026

Subject of this story

Qvest LLC

Seaboard Triumph Foods

Also named

Oversight

U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division

What happened

The U.S. Department of Labor found that Qvest LLC, an Oklahoma-based sanitation contractor, employed 11 children under 18 from at least September 2019 through September 2023 to clean equipment such as head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws and neck clippers with corrosive chemicals on the overnight shift at the Seaboard Triumph Foods pork plant in Sioux City, Iowa. In a November 2024 federal consent judgment, Qvest agreed to pay about $171,000 in child labor penalties, have a third party review its underage-employment policies, and set up a whistleblower process with a toll-free hotline. A DOL regional administrator said children kept working in dangerous jobs at the facility after it changed contractors; Seaboard said it was not accused of wrongdoing.

Sources (3)

U.S. Department of Labor (Office of the Solicitor press release)These findings illustrate Seaboard Triumph Foods' history of children working illegally in their Sioux City facility since at least September 2019...Despite changing sanitation contractors, children continued to work in dangerous occupations at this facility.

CNNCompany illegally hired minors to sanitize 'kill floor' equipment at Iowa meat processing plant, US Dept. of Labor finds

NBC NewsInvestigators find 11 children working 'dangerous' overnight cleaning shift in meat processing plant

Response

Qvest LLC

Statement given

Contacted and responded — exact wording not on record.

Seaboard Triumph Foods

Not yet contacted

Not yet contacted for this story.

What happened next (0)

No outcome recorded yet.

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