Five California poultry processing companies in La Puente and the City of Industry may owe employees a share of more than $3.8 million in back wages and damages recovered for them by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
According to a press release from the DOL, the owner of all of the companies, Tony Bran is accused of failing to pay the full wages to workers. Now, they’re tracking down individuals the companies employed between Aug. 1, 2020, and Sept. 28, 2023. Bran’s companies are The Exclusive Poultry, Meza Poultry, Valtierra Poultry, Sullon Poultry and Nollus’s Poultry.
A consent judgment the department obtained in November 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to resolve the department’s lawsuit against Bran is the cause for the effort to locate these workers. In its action, the department alleged Bran and his companies violated child labor laws by “hiring minors as young as 14 to work in dangerous jobs” according to Ag Daily.
The companies are also accused of failing to pay workers the required wages and retaliating against employees who cooperated with investigators by terminating their employment. Some workers are also said to “have received a piece rate or straightly-time hourly despite working 50 to 60-hour work weeks.”
“We must ensure these workers receive all of the wages and damages owed to them, while the division and the Office of the Solicitor have worked tirelessly to hold Tony Bran accountable, our work is not complete until the workers receive their share of the $3.8 million we successfully recovered.” said DOL Wage and Hour Division District Director Daniel Pasquil in West Covina, California.
