Los Angeles—The Labor Commissioner’s Office has reached a $1.47 million settlement over wage theft citations issued against three client employers and their owner based on violations committed by five Los Angeles-area poultry processors who underpaid more than 300 workers.
The settlement resolves litigation following a 2021 hearing officer decision for $1.5 million which upheld citations against the three client employer companies (The Exclusive Poultry, Inc., J.T. Foods Specialty, Inc., and D8 Poultry, LLC) and owner Tony Bran. California law holds client employers—businesses that obtain labor from a labor contractor—responsible for their contractors’ workplace violations. A client employer may be liable for owed wages, damages and penalties, as well as workers’ compensation violations.
“The law is clear: Employers must pay no less than the minimum wage for each hour worked, and compensate for rest periods and other non-productive time under the control of the employer,” said Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower. “This result also upholds the liability of client employers, who in this case built a business around low-paid processing workers and tried to hide behind undercapitalized labor contractors.”
The affected workers were paid by the piece to debone chicken legs at facilities in East Los Angeles and La Puente. They were not provided paid rest breaks as required by law, were not paid properly for overtime, and were not compensated for time required to wait for...
Over the last year, beyond traditional healthcare and federal procurement matters, the government has pursued federal False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and enforcement across high-risk areas, i...