WASHINGTON — A California poultry processor and supplier will pay nearly $3.8 million following an investigation by the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that found several violations in back wages, damages, and penalties after the department found the company employed minors in dangerous jobs.

DOL investigators stated that The Exclusive Poultry Inc. and related companies established by owner Tony Bran employed children as young as 14 years old to debone poultry using sharp knives and operate power-driven lifts to move pallets. 

The department also said that children worked excessive hours in violation of federal child labor regulations and the company retaliated against employees for cooperating with DOL by cutting wages.

According to details from a Nov. 16 consent judgment filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California, Bran operated two poultry plants in City of Industry and La Puente, Calif. The investigators said it found Bran set up several companies to employ workers at the plant called Meza Poultry LLC, Valtierra Poultry LLC, Sullon Poultry Inc. and Nollus’s Poultry LLC. The department has also obtained consent judgments against these companies and their owners.

The division found that Bran, The Exclusive Poultry, and associated companies, failed to pay the required overtime wages to employees, paying them either a piece rate or a straight-time hourly rate even when working 50 to 60 hours per week. Investigators noted that employers failed to maintain required records when they omitted workers from payroll records.

The recent judgment states Bran and The Exclusive Poultry must pay $3.5 million in back wages and damages to affected workers. Of that total, $300,000 will be in punitive damages and $100,614 in back wages will be paid to workers who faced retaliatory conduct. In addition, the employers must pay $201,104 in civil money penalties assessed by the division for child labor and willful violations.

Terms of the judgment also require Bran and The Exclusive Poultry to retain a monitor for three years to ensure future compliance and show hiring preference for workers fired following the DOL search of poultry plants.

In October, DOL received a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order against The Exclusive Poultry, which prevented the company from shipping any “hot goods” into commerce and any goods from a location where the department observed child labor. This case included violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Exclusive Poultry supplies poultry products to distributors who sell chicken products to, among others, Sysco Corp., Aldi, Nestle Purina, Royal Canin USA Inc. and Ralphs Grocery Company, a subsidiary of The Kroger Company, according to the DOL investigation. 

MEAT+POULTRY received a statement from an Aldi spokesperson refuting the department's report.

"At ALDI, we have stringent processes for identifying vendors and suppliers to ensure all business partners are compliant with all legal and regulatory requirements. The Exclusive Poultry has never been an ALDI supplier," the spokesperson said.