Poultry Processor Must Pay $5.8 Million to Workers in Antitrust Settlement With the DOJ

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it has filed a proposed consent decree with George’s Inc. and George’s Foods LLC, (collectively “George’s). George’s is a large poultry processing company accused of efforts to suppress poultry plant workers’ wages by sharing wage information with competing chicken processors. As part of the settlement, George’s will pay $5.8 million in restitution to poultry processing workers whose wages were suppressed and will submit regular reports to a court-appointed monitor overseeing the settlement for the next seven years. The DOJ settled its related antitrust claims in the same enforcement action against Cargill, Sanderson Farms, and Wayne Farms in 2022.