California poultry company to pay $4.8 million after employing children to work with sharp knives

The owners and operators of a network of California poultry processors and distributors were ordered to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages, and forfeit $1 million in profits after he Labor Ministry investigation found that owners were illegally employing children as young as 14 to work. dangerous work.

The wage agreement is one of the largest ever for U.S. poultry workers, the DOL said in a statement.

The investigation by the department’s Wage and Housing Division involving A1 Meat Solutions, JRC Culinary Group, Moon Poultry and five other companies alleged the company employed children in unsafe conditions, including using sharp knives to bone the poultry.

Additionally, investigators found that the employers and their associates denied poultry workers and packers overtime wages and falsified payroll records to obstruct the investigation, the DOL said. Supervisors at the employers’ facilities also allegedly retaliated against workers from the start of the investigation in January 2024, calling them derogatory slurs and changing terms of employment, investigators said.

“The employers in this case illegally employed children, some as young as 14, to work with extremely sharp knives to quickly debone poultry and denied hundreds of workers nearly $2 million in hours extra,” said Jessica Looman, wage and hour administrator. in a press release.

Some of the companies named in the settlement supplied chicken to several pet food processors as well as numerous casinos and resorts in Nevada and California, the DOL said.

The consent order signed by a federal judge also requires employers to “forfeit $1 million in profits from the sale of merchandise tainted by oppressive child labor and pay fines of $171,919 for their labor violations children,” the federal agency said.

The discovery of “oppressive” child labor permanently transformed the goods present in these facilities “into contraband that (was) prohibited from entering commerce,” the agency added.

The company owners agreed to strict corrective measures to ensure future compliance, the Labor Ministry said.

Last year, the Labor Ministry investigated 955 cases of child labor violations, involving 5,792 children nationwide, including 502 children employed in violation of hazardous occupation standards.