The Department of Justice filed a consent decree Wednesday that would require George’s Inc. of Springdale to pay $5.8 million in restitution to plant workers to resolve charges that it conspired with other poultry companies to suppress workers’ wages.
The amended complaint and consent decree was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The complaint said George’s and other companies suppressed wages through the exchange of pay information for years.
George’s, a fourth-generation family business, has eight plants in Arkansas, Missouri and Virginia with more than 7,000 employees, according to its website.
The department said George’s, one of the nation’s largest broiler chicken producers, provided “significant and voluntary cooperation” with its investigation. The DOJ has already reached consent decree agreements with other companies including Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms.
“Today’s action is another important milestone in the Justice Department’s efforts to hold poultry processors accountable for antitrust violations that harm workers,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said in a Wednesday news release. “The antitrust laws protect American workers from information exchanges, like these, that damage competition and the competitive process.”
If the settlement is approved by the court in Maryland after a 60-day public comment period, in addition to the fine, George’s will be required to stop sharing compensation information and agree to have its compliance supervised by a court-appointed monitor for seven years.
The monitor will have the authority to also review George’s compliance on all relevant federal antitrust laws.
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