MINNEAPOLIS (Associated Press) — The U.S. Department of Labor says one of the country’s largest cleaning services for food processing companies employed more than 100 children in dangerous jobs at 13 meatpacking plants across the country, including Minnesota.

The agency said Friday that Wisconsin-based Packer Sanitation Services Inc. has paid more than $1.5 million in civil penalties.

At least three of those minors were injured on the job, burned by caustic cleaning chemicals at the JBS plant in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Other plants include the JBS facility in Worthington and Turkey Valley Farms in Marshall, Minnesota.

The agency says it’s seen about a 50-percent increase in child labor violations since 2018.