The owners and operators were ordered to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages and to give up $1 million in profits.

The wage settlement is one of the largest ever reached for U.S. poultry workers.

The owners and operators of a network of California poultry processors and distributors were ordered to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages and to give up $1 million in profits after a Department of Labor investigation found the owners illegally employed children as young as 14 to work dangerous jobs.

The wage settlement is one of the largest ever reached for U.S. poultry workers, the DOL said in a statement.

The investigation by the department’s Wage and House Division involving A1 Meat Solutions, JRC Culinary Group, Moon Poultry and five other businesses alleged that the enterprise employed children in dangerous conditions, including using sharp knives to debone poultry.

Additionally, investigators found the employers and their associates denied poultry workers and packers overtime wages and falsified payroll records to obstruct the probe, the DOL said. Supervisors at the employers’ facilities also allegedly retaliated against workers once the investigation began in January 2024, calling them derogatory slurs and changing terms of employment, investigators said.