Kieler, Wisconsin - Federal investigators have found that one of the US' biggest food sanitation companies illegally employed more than 100 children at meatpacking plants in eight states.

Packers Sanitation Services Inc. has been fined $1.5 million and is facing child labor accusations after allegedly employing minors from 13 to 17 years of age in dangerous conditions.

Investigators "found that children were working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters," the US Department of Labor (DOL) said in a press release.

The children were reportedly in employed in 13 plants in Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Tennessee. According to NBC, many of the minors belonged to families that migrated from Central American countries and were expected to work overnight shifts cleaning up blood and animal parts.

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"The child labor violations in this case were systemic and reached across eight states, and clearly indicate a corporate-wide failure by Packers Sanitation Services at all levels," said the DOL's Principal Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division Jessica Looman.

"These children should never have been employed in meat packing plants and this can only happen when employers do not take responsibility to prevent child labor violations from occurring in the first place."

The revelations of abuse at Packers Sanitation Services Inc. come amid a growing Republican push to weaken child labor protections.

GOP lawmakers in Iowa have introduced a bill that would allow children as young as 14 to work jobs in mining, logging, and animal slaughtering.

Their counterparts in the Wisconsin state Senate have approved legislation that would allow companies to keep 14 and 15-year-old employees as late as 9:30 PM on weeknights and 11:00 PM on weekends. Meanwhile, a bill has been introduced in Ohio that would allow businesses to keep minors under 16 at work until 9:00 PM.

Labor activists have called for companies to provide living wages and benefits to workers instead of employing children under abusive conditions.