WEST COVINA, CALIF. — Employees of five California poultry processing plants may be owed back wages and damages totaling $3.8 million, according to the Department of Labor.

According to the agency’s Wage and Hour Division, Tony Bran, the owner of the five processors in La Puente and City of Industry, Calif., failed to pay the workers required wages. The companies involved in the investigation include The Exclusive Poultry, Meza Poultry, Valtierra Poultry, Sullon Poultry and Nollus’s Poultry.

Anyone employed by the companies between Aug. 1, 2020, and Sept. 28, 2023, is eligible to receive compensation for back wages and damages.

The DOL’s effort to locate these workers follows a consent judgment the department obtained in November 2023 in the US District Court for the Central District of California to resolve the department's lawsuit against Bran.

In its litigation against Bran, the DOL alleged that the employer and his companies violated child labor laws, failed to pay workers wages and retaliated against employees who cooperated with investigators by firing them.

According to the investigation, Bran employed minors as young as 14 years old in dangerous jobs. The children worked excessive hours in violation of federal child labor regulations, the agency said. The processors allegedly failed to pay the required overtime wages to employees, paying them either a piece rate or a straight-time hourly rate even when working 50-60 hours a week.