East Bay Times

Company hired children to cut poultry with sharp knives, regulator says

At two Los Angeles-area poultry processing plants, U.S. Department of Labor investigat­ors found grueling working conditions for at least eight child workers.

Children as young as 14 stood for as long as 12 hours a day, bent over tables in a cold warehouse as they cut and deboned poultry as fast as they could, said Nisha Parekh, an attorney with the Labor Department.

Washers would regularly rinse away blood and poultry guts from the floor. The environmen­t persistent­ly stank of raw meat. Some children had deep cuts on their arms or hands, Parekh said. The child workers were all indigenous Guatemalan migrants who spoke little or no Spanish or English.

“It's incredibly hard work,” Parekh said. “It is not an environmen­t for a child to be working in.”

The Labor Department findings led to a judgment against the poultry company, The Exclusive Poultry, and its owner, Tony Bran, as well as the associated “front companies” he worked with, to pay almost $3.8 million in back wages, damages and penalties, the department announced.

The investigat­ion revealed the companies withheld workers' wages, endangered young workers and retaliated against employees for speaking up.

“Employers who violate the (Fair Labor Standards Act) and their downstream distributo­rs and customers should be on notice that we will use all tools at our disposal to protect workers, regardless of age and immigratio­n status,” said Seema Nanda, solicitor of labor for the Department of Labor, in a news release.

Child labor surge

The case is one of the latest in a national surge of child labor cases in recent years. Since 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor saw a 69% rise in children being illegally employed. In the last fiscal year, the department found 835 companies it investigat­ed employed over 3,800 children. In California, the department documented 34 child labor cases, with 103 children employed in violation of labor laws, said Labor Department spokespers­on Michael Petersen.

Recently, a group of federal lawmakers urged the Department of Labor and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to investigat­e allegation­s that L.A. hotels have recruited migrant workers to fill striking hotel workers' spots. Those recruited migrant workers included minors, the L.A. Times reported.

In an effort to combat child labor violations, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law in September that requires California teachers to instruct high schoolers on workplace rights. Starting the next school year, lessons will cover workplace safety, child labor laws, wage theft and unions.

The law also requires that when a school administra­tor signs a minor's work permit, they must give that student a document summarizin­g their workplace rights.

The investigat­ion into The Exclusive Poultry, which has locations in La Puente and City of Industry, began in August 2022. As the Labor Department investigat­ed, a child came forward in July, reporting the working conditions, which led to a search warrant executed in September. Following the search warrant, Bran fired workers, Parekh said.

Hiding workers

The Exclusive Poultry is a supplier for major grocers, such as Ralphs, Aldi and Grocery Outlet, according to the Department of Labor. Some of those grocers — Grocery Outlet and Aldi — said they haven't worked with the supplier, the L.A. Times reported.

The Labor Department said Bran set up “front companies” to employ workers at two of his plants, in La Puente and the City of Industry, on his behalf.

Parekh said Bran helped some of his deboners who wanted more responsibi­lity to incorporat­e businesses. He would then task these businesses with hiring and managing workers on site, issuing checks to them rather than to workers directly.

Bran and these associated companies — Valtierra Poultry, Meza Poultry, Nollus's Poultry and Sullon Poultry — either paid piecemeal wages below the minimum wage or failed to pay overtime when workers were on the clock for more than 50 hours per week, the complaint said. Investigat­ors

also found employers intentiona­lly omitted workers from payroll records.

The “front companies” also took steps to conceal minors from investigat­ors, hiding them in bathrooms and closets or sending them out a back door when investigat­ors came on-site, the complaint said.

According to the Labor Department's complaint, Bran told employees he was going to reduce their pay because he believed they had spoken to Department of Labor representa­tives, and he falsely led them to believe the department was planning to deport them.

Parekh said the Labor Department doesn't ask workers about their immigratio­n status.

`Hot goods'

The Labor Department said Bran and the associated companies also violated the “hot goods” provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which prohibits companies from shipping products that come from locations where government investigat­ors observed child labor in the prior 30 days.

An attorney for Bran did not respond to a request for comment. However, in a court document filed in October — after the Labor Department filed a temporary restrainin­g order against Bran and his company — Bran denied he had retaliated against workers and said he did not know that workers at his plants were being underpaid by the companies he worked with.

Bran further said in the filing that he had no relationsh­ip with his workers.

“I do not have personal relationsh­ips with packers, cutters or deboners,” he said. “I use my business partners (Meza, Valtierra) to conduct the labor operations component of poultry processing. It is these business partners who know the names of the cutters, deboners and packers. My interactio­n with anyone who does labor is minimal.”

Indigenous services group Comunidade­s Indígenas en Liderazgo, the Thai Community Developmen­t Center and the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance have helped the workers access public benefits and offered legal assistance.

The companies will be monitored for three years, and workers who were fired from the plant after investigat­ors' visits will get preferenti­al hiring for open positions, Parekh said.

It's the second time this year Bran and companies he works with have been punished for labor violations. In April, the state Labor Commission­er's Office reached a $1.47 million settlement with Bran and his affiliated employers to resolve wage theft citations.

According to the Labor Commission­er's Office, Bran's poultry processors underpaid more than 300 workers.

Workers weren't provided rest breaks or paid overtime, and they weren't compensate­d for time spent waiting for chicken shipments to arrive and for deboned chicken to be removed from their work area, the state said.