A California poultry supplier agreed to pay nearly $3.8 million to settle allegations that it endangered child workers and committed wage theft while processing chickens for major U.S. supermarkets, according to the Labor Department.
The agency announced the settlement with Exclusive Poultry Inc. on Monday, accusing the company of behaving “recklessly” by violating child labor law, stealing wages and firing workers who cooperated with the investigation.
Officials said Exclusive Poultry, which is based in La Puente, employed kids as young as 14 to “debone poultry using sharp knives” and to “operate power-driven lifts to move pallets.”
A federal judge granted regulators a preliminary injunction to prevent the company from transporting “hot goods” ― that is, poultry produced in facilities where laws were allegedly broken.
Exclusive Poultry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Seema Nanda, the Labor Department’s solicitor general, urged workers in a statement to come forward if their employers didn’t pay them what they were owed.
U.S. regulators have said they are dealing with a rise in child labor cases, as migrant children who fled Latin America wind up in slaughterhouses and other potentially dangerous workplaces.
“Employers who violate [wage law] 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,” she said.
U.S. regulators have said they are...
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