Food plant sanitation company moving headquarters from Wisconsin to Georgia

A company that cleans food processing plants is moving its headquarters out of Wisconsin two years after it was investigated for violating federal child labor laws.

Packers Sanitation Services Inc., or PSSI, filed a layoff notice with the state earlier this month, saying it planned to move its headquarters from Kieler in Grant County to Atlanta, Georgia. According to the notice, most of its corporate roles will move to Georgia.

“The Company has already filled several key positions in Atlanta,” wrote Jeanette Bruni, chief human resources officer for PSSI. “Eventually, the entire corporate office in Kieler will close, but PSSI plans on maintaining a chemical operation in Kieler.”

The company estimates that roughly 83 employees will lose their jobs. The first round of layoffs is expected to come on Dec. 31 and another round on March 31, 2025, according to the notice. The terminations will come “on or within 14 days” of those dates, the notice said.

The job titles listed in the layoff notice range from administrative specialist to safety support coordinator. According to the notice, all affected employees were made aware of the change.

“Severance benefits for affected team members will vary by tenure and job grade,” Bruni wrote.

PSSI employed 17,000 people who cleaned 700 food processing plants nationwide as of 2022, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor against the company.

In 2022, the Labor Department sued the company during a department investigation into child labor law violations. The suit alleged PSSI interfered with an investigation by intimidating minors and deleting or manipulating employment files.

The Department of Labor won a court order in Nov. 2022 that required the company to stop using child labor and to comply with the investigation.

In early 2023, PSSI paid $1.5 million in financial penalties for illegally employing more than 100 children federal investigators say were exposed to dangerous conditions.

The Labor Department found PSSI had employed at least 102 minors between the ages of 13 and 17. The teenagers worked overnight shifts, using hazardous chemicals to clean saws and other high-risk equipment at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states. At least three children were injured while working, including a 13-year-old who suffered chemical burns.

At the time, Jessica Looman, principal deputy Wage and Hour administrator, said the company’s use of illegal child labor was a systemic, company-wide failure.

“PSSI’s system, in many cases, flagged that these children were too young to work, and yet they were still employed at these facilities,” she said. “Employers must take responsibility to ensure that their employees are of legal age to work, and we must all recognize that there are just some jobs that are too dangerous for our children.”

In a statement released after the fine was announced, PSSI said it no longer employed minors identified in the investigation, and said it would work with the Department of Labor to enforce its prohibition on employing anyone under 18.