An inspection has discovered 57 under-age workers at a meatpacking plant in Iowa, which has sparked an investigation that is seeking charges for child labor violations. By Iowa laws it is illegal to employ minors under the age of 18 at meatpacking companies due to the dangerous nature of the work. In addition through interviews, the under-age workers have revealed that they were forced to work up to 17hours/day, not getting paid overtime, and worked with little or no safety training. If found guilty, the enterprise will have to pay a fine of up to $1 million.

This ethical dilemma is the question of whether or not it’s moral for companies to employ under-age workers. In my opinion it is unethical since these enterprises are taking advantages of minors who do not possess the necessary life experience, and jurisdictional knowledge to understand and defend their legal working rights. This allows the companies to underspend on adequate training and equipment for these minors, as well as to create miserable working conditions. The result is better profit for the companies, which have to spend less on these under-age employees.

Work Cited:

PRESTON, JULIA. “Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant – NYTimes.com.”The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/us/06meat.html?ref=childlabor>.

To learn more about child labor visit: http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html