Perdue Farms and a staffing agency will pay more than $4 million to settle claims that they employed children in hazardous jobs at a chicken processing facility in Virginia, the U.S. Department of Labor said on Wednesday.

Agribusiness giants Purdue Farms and JBS Foods, along with a slaughterhouse cleaning company, paid about $8.4 millions in fines for having underaged workers in dangerous jobs.

Listen to this article Perdue Farms has agreed to pay $4 million in restitution to settle a federal investigation into alleged child labor violations at the company’s poultry processing plant on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

The poultry processor has reached an agreement with the Department of Labor, which alleged third-party use of minors.

In a separate consent judgment entered in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, Staff Management Solutions agreed to pay a $125,000 civil money penalty and to be permanently enjoined from future FLSA child labor violations in meat processing and packing industries.

Maryland-based Perdue Farms Inc. has agreed to pay $4 million to resolve a US Department of Labor probe into child labor violations at its poultry processing facility in Virginia, a rare move by the agency to hold a company accountable as a joint employer for labor violations committed by its subcontractors.

The company and a staffing agency it contracted with will pay restitution costs after violations were found in its Accomac, Virginia processing facility.

The problem of kids working in dangerous slaughterhouses continues to be a concern as the Labor Department announced its third agreement this week with a company in the industry agreeing to pay a penalty and reform its practices to help ensure it won't hire underage workers again.

More than 400 employees are being impacted by the closure of the Perdue Farms Monterey plant. Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter reacted to the news.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has reached agreements with Perdue Farms Inc. and staffing agency SMX LLC to resolve child labor violations at a poultry processing facility in Accomac, Virginia.

U.S. chicken producer Perdue Farms will permanently shut a Monterey, Tennessee, processing plant on March 28, eliminating jobs for 433 employees, the company said on Friday. It is the latest loss for poultry workers,