CITY OF INDUSTRY, CALIF. – The US Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division announced that a California meat company and a staffing agency would receive fines for multiple violations, including employing child labor.

The DOL investigation found A&J Meats and The Right Hire jointly employed people as young as 15 years old who used sharp knives, allowing them to work inside freezers and coolers, and scheduling them to work at times not permitted by federal child labor regulations.

The two companies are ordered to surrender $327,484 in profits from sales involving this type of labor. DOL will also require the firms to pay $62,516 in penalties.

“A&J Meats and The Right Hire knowingly endangered these children’s safety and put their companies’ profits before the well-being of these minors,” said Marc Pilotin, Western Regional Solicitor of Labor. “These employers egregiously violated federal law and now, both have learned about the serious consequences for those who so callously expose children to harm.”

More details from the government said that it found children working at the facility for more than three hours a day on school days, past 7 p.m. and more than 18 hours per week while school was in session. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) forbids employers from employing children under the age of 18 in dangerous occupations which includes most meat packing positions.

The judgment also forbids A&J Meats, owner Priscilla Helen Castillo, and The Right Hire staffing agency from trying to trade goods connected to oppressive child labor. Annual FLSA training is also required for at least four years and the companies must submit to monitoring by an independent third-party for three years.

Castillo’s father, Tony Bran, was also the subject of a DOL investigation in April 2024. He may owe $3.8 million to employees of five California poultry processing plants.