SPRINGDALE, ARK. — Tyson Foods Inc. is currently under investigation by the US Department of Labor (DOL) after being suspected of employing minors at its facilities.

Court documents filed on Sept. 6 requesting search warrants for two Tyson facilities recently became unsealed. The warrants are targeted at Tyson’s Green Forest and Rogers, Ark., facilities, as well as the company’s headquarters in Springdale, Ark.

Through the warrants, the DOL intends to gather information on the company’s compliance with minimum wage, overtime wage, recordkeeping requirements and the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Information gathered includes electronic data regarding employees who work for Tyson, an affiliate, or a contractor at the company’s facilities.

The investigation was spurred on partly by an anonymous tip last summer that minors appeared to be working at the Green Forest plant. In June, a mother of middle schoolers said she overheard children between 11 and 13 years old discussing their employment at the Tyson plant on the night shift from approximately 11 p.m. to 7 or 8 a.m. She noted that the children talked about cleaning equipment and floors at the facility and about not knowing how to get money from their paycheck out of the ATM.

Following the tip, DOL’s Wage and Hour Division investigators staked out the facility in July. During a time frame from about 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., the investigators observed what appeared to be multiple individuals below the age of 16 entering and exiting the employee entrance. The investigators presented photographs of the suspected minors in the request for a search warrant.

“During the observation time described above, I observed several people who appeared to potentially be minor employees entering and exiting the facility by running or pushing and shoving,” said Mauro Pinter, investigator with the Wage and Hour Division. “Based on their appearance, dress and demeanor, I believe them to be minors, and two of them appeared to potentially be under the age of 16.”

Tyson Foods did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.