Wage theft prevention ordinance moves forward

07.20.11 – 2:11 pm | By Rebecca Bowe | Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian Online

Supervisors expressed strong support July 20 for an ordinance that a San Francisco coalition of labor advocates is pushing for to prevent wage theft and shore up protections for low-income workers. Spearheaded by Sups. Eric Mar and David Campos with Sups. Ross Mirkarimi, link Jane Kim, John Avalos, and David Chiu as co-sponsors, the legislation would enhance the power of the city’s Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement (OLSE) and double fines for employers who retaliate against workers.

Dozens of low-wage restaurant workers, caregivers, and day laborers turned out for a July 20 Budget & Finance Committee meeting to speak in support of the Wage Theft Prevention Ordinance, which was drafted in partnership with the Progressive Workers Alliance. The umbrella organization includes grassroots advocacy groups such as the Chinese Progressive Association, the Filipino Community Center, Pride at Work, Young Workers United, and others.

A restaurant worker who gave his name as Edwin said during the hearing that he’d been granted no work breaks, no time off, and had his tips stolen by his employer during a two-and-a-half year stint in a San Francisco establishment, only to be fired for trying to take a paid sick day. “When I was let go, I did not receive payment for my last days there,” he said.

His experience is not uncommon. An in-depth study of labor conditions in Chinatown restaurants conducted by the Chinese Progressive Association found that some 76 percent of employees did not receive overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a week, and roughly half were not being paid San Francisco’s minumum wage of $9.92 an hour.

“People who need a job and can’t afford to lose it are vulnerable to exploitation,” Shaw San Liu, an organizer with the Chinese Progressive Association who has been instrumental in advancing the campaign to end wage theft, told the Guardian.

The ordinance would increase fines against employers from $500 to $1,000 for retaliating against workers who stand up for their rights under local labor laws. It would establish $500 penalties for employers who don’t bother to post notice of the minimum wage, don’t provide contact information, neglect to notify employees when OLSE is conducting a workplace investigation, or fail to comply with settlement agreements in the wake of a dispute. It would also establish a timeline in which worker complaints must be addressed.

“The fact is that even though we have minimum wage laws in place, those laws are still being violated not only throughout the country but here in San Francisco,” Campos told the Guardian. “Wage theft is a crime, and we need to make sure that there is adequate enforcement — and that requires a change in the law so that we provide the Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement more tools and more power to make sure that the rights of workers are protected. Not only does it protect workers, but it also protects businesses, because the vast majority of businesses in San Francisco are actually … complying with the law, and it’s not fair for them to let a small minority that are not doing that get away with it.”

So far, the ordinance is moving through the board approval process with little resistance. Mayor Ed Lee has voiced support, and Budget Committee Chair Carmen Chu, who is often at odds with board progressives, said she supported the goal of preventing wage theft and thanked advocates for their efforts during the hearing. The item was continued to the following week due to several last-minute changes, and will go before the full board on Aug. 2.

Details

Wage theft a scourge for low-income workers

John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer | Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Monday, July 18, 2011

Li Shuang Li waited tables six days a week in a San Francisco Chinatown restaurant where workers were yelled at for carrying only one pot of tea in each hand.

She had no health insurance, sick days or vacation. There were three servers for a restaurant that sat 80. Shifts could last 10 hours.

For that, the mother of two says she was paid $900 a month – less than $5 an hour.

Li counts herself among the lucky ones.

“Some families are in a much worse situation,” Li, 42, said in Cantonese through an interpreter. “There were workers who were not paid wages for three to 10 months.”

It’s part of a national scourge known as wage theft. More than two-thirds of low-wage workers reported some type of pay-related law violation, according to a 2009 report by the National Employment Law Project, which interviewed 4,387 front-line workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

The theft comes in many forms, including paying less than minimum wage, denying meal and bathroom breaks, and forcing employees to work long hours without overtime. In extreme situations, workers are locked into factories or businesses for 24-hour shifts, advocates said.

“It’s a huge problem in the city of San Francisco, in the state of California and nationally,” state Labor Commissioner Julie Su said. By some estimates, California drops $7 billion a year to wage theft in lost tax revenue and economic participation by low-wage workers, Su said.

Language a barrier

Victims are often recent immigrants in low-paying jobs who speak little English. Women are more often victims than men, studies show. Workers in restaurants, retail, domestic service, the garment industry, along with day laborers, are particularly susceptible, state labor officials said. Victims often don’t know the law and are hesitant to report abuse.

“Language is a big barrier,” Li said.

There is also the economic pressure to survive.

Some employees who haven’t been paid for months continue to work, believing it’s the only chance to get their money, advocates said.

Eduardo Jaramillo, 35, said he was collecting recyclables in the Mission District before he got a job as a dishwasher and janitor at the Viva Portofino restaurant in San Leandro.

Jaramillo said he knew he wasn’t being paid overtime he was owed after working 12 hours some days, six or seven days a week, for $320 to $350 a week. But he continued working. “I needed my job,” he said.

He quit after about three months, filing a claim for $2,674 with the state labor commissioner, according to an attorney with the nonprofit La Raza Centro Legal. The case is continuing.

His old boss laughed at him, Jaramillo said. Later, he bumped into the man.

“He yelled at me that he’s going to have me deported,” Jaramillo said. A call to the owner of Viva Portofino was not returned.

Such threats are common, officials said, even though state labor laws apply, regardless of immigration status.

“Violations are happening at an increasing rate today in a climate of lax enforcement at the federal level and increasing boldness” by law-breaking employers, said Shaw San Liu, an organizer at the Chinese Progressive Association.

San Francisco officials are trying to tackle the problem. The city has an office dedicated to enforcing local labor laws – the only one of its type in the country. Legislation to tighten enforcement, pushed by community groups like the Chinese Progressive Association, is before the Board of Supervisors.

Last week, City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued Dick Lee Pastry, a Chinatown restaurant, for failing to pay more than $440,000 in wages to seven employees.

The workers were forced to work up to 14 hours a day, six days a week, for less than $4 an hour, according to the lawsuit. San Francisco’s minimum wage, which is higher than the state’s, is currently $9.92 an hour.

‘Corrupting’ marketplace

The owners, Peter Yu and Ada Chiu, are accused of creating fake schedules showing that staff only worked three hours a day.

“Robbing employees … doesn’t just hurt working families,” Herrera said. “It also hurts honest businesses and their employees by corrupting a competitive marketplace.”

In 2005, Herrera sued the owners of the defunct King Tin Restaurant, seeking $115,000 in back wages for cheated workers. The restaurant paid $85,000 to settle the case.

Herrera’s office also sed an order in 2006 for the Golden Dragon Restaurant to pay $1.1 million in back wages and penalties.

Since the city’s minimum wage law took effect in 2004, San Francisco officials have recovered nearly $4.4 million in back wages for workers, according to the city’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement.

“We investigate every complaint we receive,” said Donna Levitt, who heads the office, which has a staff of 16 to enforce labor law, including about six handling minimum wage and paid sick leave violations.

Last year, they received complaints about 81 businesses across the city, she said.

Supervisors David Campos and Eric Mar are the chief sponsors of legislation before the board that would require employers to notify workers of a wage investigation, double the penalty for retaliating against workers to $1,000 and allow investigators to cite employers immediately for violations. Currently, the city has to give the employer notice of the violation and at least 10 days to correct the problem.

Pending amendments would also require the city to resolve labor claims or refer them to a hearing within six months, but Levitt said she doesn’t have the staff to meet that deadline.

“Many investigations are complicated,” she said. “They involve numerous job-site visits, requesting and getting an employer’s records, interviewing employees, interviewing the employer, conducting an audit.”

Li, who now volunteers to help workers in situations like hers, said an economic recovery can’t take hold until wage theft is addressed.

“If you don’t even have enough money to eat until you’re full,” she said, “how are you going to have any kind of money to spend?”

Details