Overview

• Poultry processor The Exclusive Poultry Inc. and related companies, established by owner Tony Bran, have agreed to pay nearly $3.8 million in back wages, damages and penalties after the U.S. Department of Labor found the company endangered young workers and violated federal child labor regulations.
• The companies were found to have employed children as young as 14 years old to debone poultry using sharp knives and operate power-driven lifts to move pallets, and also retaliated against employees for cooperating with investigators by cutting their wages.
• The Exclusive Poultry supplies poultry products to distributors who sell chicken products to, among others, Grocery Outlet, SYSCO Corp., ALDI, Nestle Purina, Royal Canin U.S.A. Inc. and Ralphs Grocery Company, a subsidiary of The Kroger Company.
• The judgment requires The Exclusive Poultry to retain a monitor for three years to ensure future compliance and to show a hiring preference for those workers they fired following the department’s search of the poultry plants.
• This case is part of the department’s ongoing effort to combat child labor abuses and wage theft in the poultry and meat processing industries.