"The Exclusive Poultry and owner Tony Bran willfully withheld workers' hard-earned wages, endangered young workers and retaliated against employees to conceal their wrongdoing," said Jessica Looman, administrator of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division. Labor investigators repeatedly went to the company's poultry processing locations and said in affidavits they saw young workers they estimated were 14 to 17 years of age, but the workers refused to talk and would run from them. The Labor Department told NBC News it subsequently confirmed that some of the workers were as young as 14. Workers allegedly told investigators that minors who worked at the company were hidden in closets and bathrooms when the investigators arrived so they would not be found. In fall 2022, the department found more than 100 children, some as young as 13, cleaning slaughterhouses for a Midwestern firm.

---

Persons: Tony Bran, Jessica Looman, Anthony McClaren, McClaren, Bran, Biden Organizations: Labor Department, Aldi, Ralphs, Kroger, Labor, NBC, NBC News, Department of Labor, Workers Locations: Los Angeles