Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asked President Donald Trump’s Department of Labour to start a probe into Tyson Foods on Tuesday after getting a tip that the company used child labour at one of its facilities.

On Tuesday, Hawley asked Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to look into the situation in a letter she sent. The person who told him about the problem told his Senate Judiciary subcommittee about it, and they started their own probe.

In the past few years, child labour probes have been done at Tyson plants in Tennessee and other places.

“The whistleblower, a former Tyson Foods worker who was in charge of plant safety, says they saw underage workers and heard from other hourly Tyson workers that there were child workers in the plant several times.” “The allegations say that these child workers were hired by a third party that Tyson hired to do work in the plant,” Hawley wrote in his letter.

“When the tipster told higher-ups about problems with child labour at the plant, they were punished and put in a “toxic work environment.” The person who blew the whistle quit because of the bad work environment. The letter went on to say that Tyson was taking civil action against them because they quit the company.

Hawley then said that news stories showed that “Tyson uses subcontractors on purpose to avoid punishment for illegally hiring children.” Because of this, Tyson has been able to avoid all responsibility for breaking laws against child labour.

In a message to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Tyson said he had done nothing wrong.

“We don’t hire anyone under the age of 18 to work in any of our facilities, and we don’t help, excuse, or take part in any other way with third parties who use child labour.” We really care about following all labour laws, and we make sure that everyone on our team is over the age of 21 by using the federal government’s E-Verify and IMAGE systems. “We also have several ways for all team members to report suspicious behaviour, such as an anonymous ethics hotline,” a Tyson Foods spokeswoman said in a statement.

Chavez-DeRemer promised that she would use her job in the new Trump administration to stop unfair labour practices during her confirmation meeting.

“No one in the United States should let children work.” “The Department of Labour has the power to go even further if companies are breaking the law on purpose and taking advantage of children in their factories,” she told Hawley during the approval process.

Fox News Digital was told by Chavez-DeRemer’s office that the secretary had gotten Hawley’s letter on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Labour Department, Courtney Parella, said in a statement, “The Secretary is reviewing the Senator’s letter and remains committed to protecting America’s children from possible labour violations.”

Tyson also got a lot of bad press in 2024 when it said it was going to hire refugee seekers for one of its plants in Tennessee. This was just a few days after closing a plant in Iowa, which put about 1,000 people out of work.