ESG Enforcement Tracker

On 13 January 2025, JBS, a subsidiary of Brazilian JBS S.A., the world’s largest processor of fresh beef and pork, entered into an agreement with the DOL in connection with unlawful child labour practices.

Pursuant to this agreement, JBS will provide a US$4 million fund to assist individuals and wider communities affected by unlawful child labour practices. This is in addition to further measures including hiring a child labour compliance specialist, maintaining an ethics hotline for anonymous reporting of compliance concerns, requiring nationwide training on the prevention of illegal child labour and a requirement to notify the DOL if contracts with third-party providers are terminated due to child labour violations.

JBS, headquartered in Colorado, is the largest beef producer and the second-largest fresh pork producer in the US. Its products are sold globally, and it employs around 37,000 people.

Since 2022, the DOL has investigated third-party contractors providing services at meat packing facilities and providers of poultry catching operations. These investigations found that JBS’s service providers were employing children in dangerous jobs and for overnight shifts at JBS’s facilities in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.

The agreement is said to commit JBS to holding key elements of its supply chain, third-party contractors and service providers accountable for illegal child labour.