Employees of five California poultry processing companies in La Puente and the City of Industry may be owed a share of more than $3.8 million in back wages and damages recovered on their behalf by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division is currently looking for people employed by The Exclusive Poultry, Meza Poultry, Valtierra Poultry, Sullon Poultry, or Nollus’s Poultry.
According to the department’s website, the owner of all of the companies, Tony Bran is accused of failing to pay the full wages owed to workers. Now, they’re looking for individuals who were employed by the companies between Aug. 1, 2020, and Sept. 28, 2023.
The effort to locate these workers follows 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. 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.
The companies are also accused of failing to pay workers the required wages and retaliating against employees who cooperated with investigators by firing them. Some of those workers also are 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,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Daniel Pasquil in West Covina, California. “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.”
The department also notes that one of Bran’s companies, The Exclusive Poultry, supplied chicken products to retailers and distributors such as ALDI, Grocery Outlet, Nestle Purina, SYSCO Corp., Ralphs Grocery Company, and Royal Canin U.S.A. Inc. should contact the division’s West Covina District Office at (626) 732-1070 to determine if they are owed back wages and damages.
