A federal court in Los Angeles ordered the owners of a California poultry enterprise to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages to 476 workers after the Department of Labor (DOL) also found children as young as 14 were illegally employed to work dangerous jobs.
The defendants, Fu Qian Chen Lu, Cameron Zhong Lu, Ryan Zhong Lu, and Bruce Shu Hua Lok, operated a network of eight poultry processors and distributors in Monterey Park, El Monte, and Irwindale, California.
The four have been ordered to pay back more than $1.8 million in back wages and $3 million in damages to the affected workers and pay a $171,919 penalty for child labor violations. The settlement also requires them to forfeit $1 million in profits earned from the sale of goods tainted by oppressive child labor.
The investigation began in January 2024 after meatcutters and packers complained to the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division office in Los Angeles about unpaid overtime wages.
According to the DOL, the workers’ supervisors then began retaliating against them at their workplace, calling them derogatory slurs and telling them that they put the “noose around their own necks” for talking to the department. Subsequently, the supervisors changed the terms of employment.
The company’s prior lawyer refused to respond to any of the DOL’s administrative subpoenas, the DOL said, and payroll records were falsified to obstruct the investigation.
Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division soon learned that the poultry enterprise also employed children—as young as 14 years old—in violation of federal child labor regulations.
“The employers in this case illegally employed children, some as young as 14 years old, to work with extremely sharp-edged knives to quickly debone poultry and denied hundreds of workers nearly $2 million in overtime wages,” said Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman in a press release.
“These violations are unacceptable, and the Wage and Hour Division will continue to use all its tools to stop the exploitation of vulnerable workers,” she added.
Once investigators had verified the child labor violations, a restraining order was issued to prevent the business from shipping and selling its goods. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, goods produced with illegal child labor become automatically contraband by law, effectively banning them from the market.
In addition to the monetary correction, the court ordered the company owners to provide training on the Fair Labor Standards Act to all their managers and supervisors. An independent third party must be hired to monitor compliance with the act and other legal requirements at their facilities.
The four operated A1 Meat Solutions, Lotus Plus, Lotus Poultry, Farmers Process, Durfee Poultry, L & Y Food, JRC Culinary Group, and Moon Poultry, and supplied various hotels, casinos, and pet food companies in Nevada and California.
The DOL encourages downstream distributors and customers to protect themselves against potential liability related to so-called “hot goods” made with oppressive child labor.
