New York Comptroller Presses Blackstone on Child Labor Use at Meat Plants

  • PSSI paid $1.5 million after DOL’s child labor investigation
  • Blackstone’s Schwarzman has said he takes the matter seriously
Thomas DiNapoliPhotographer: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images
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New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli pressed Blackstone Inc. for answers on how it plans to address what he called “abhorrent” child labor violations at a cleaning contractor owned by the private equity firm.

DiNapoli, sole trustee of the $240 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, expressed concern in a March letter to top Blackstone executives that fallout from a government investigation of Packers Sanitation Services could hurt investors. PSSI paid $1.5 million in fines in February after the US Department of Labor said the company illegally employed at least 102 children between the ages of 13 and 17.