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High-Tech Sweatshop Labor Suit Ends

Cambodian American settles with former employer

By AsianWeek Staff and Associated Press

A Cambodian American who claimed he was fired after refusing to do high-tech piecework at home for less than minimum wage has settled an unfair labor practices suit with a Silicon Valley company.

Financial terms of Kamsan Mao’s settlement with Top Line Electronics were sealed. Attorneys said last week it was the first suit challenging the electronics industry’s practice of paying below minimum wage to employees working from home.

“Mr. Mao stood up to his employers and won,” said attorney Doris Ng at the San Francisco-based Equal Rights Advocates. “The settlement marks a victory for other workers because it forces Top Line to stop using workers to manufacture computer components in their homes.”

Attorneys for this case have likened the use of piecework and low wages to sweatshop practices in the garment industry. “As with sweatshops in the garment industry, the electronics assembly industry depends upon the work of hundreds of low-wage, immigrant workers,” said Hina Shah, an attorney from the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco.

The use of immigrants — particularly those of Vietnamese descent — to make electronics parts at home has been widespread in Silicon Valley since the early 1980s. At least a dozen local contract manufacturers, ranging from small companies to multibillion-dollar giants, have been involved in piecework arrangements.

The mostly immigrant labor force sometimes is paid as little as a penny per component, sometimes barely earning minimum wage.

Mao, 33, alleged San Jose-based Top Line forced him to work from home at night and on weekends after his daily eight-hour shifts. He said he was fired in 1998 after complaining.

“After working a full eight-hour day I would come home and work another three to six hours at night and on the weekends,” Mao said in a written statement. “Sometimes I worked seven days a week for months without a break.”

Mao claimed he was sometimes paid as little as $5 for three hours of labor as he built and repaired power supplies that went into computers eventually sold to computer giants Compaq and Dell, who were not named in the suit.

Mao and others were paid for each item assembled, so-called “piecework,’’ rather than by the hour. The practice is not illegal, but the pay rate must comply with minimum wage and overtime laws.

In addition, Mao said he was exposed to noxious fumes from chemical cleansers and the smoke of soldering irons.

As part of the agreement, Top Line has agreed to stop at-home work for its employees. Carolyn Knox, the company’s attorney on the case, was not immediately available for comment.

Mao said when “people are desperate for money” they are willing to work for low wages without being aware of labor laws. “They often don’t know the law because they just came from another country and can’t speak English,” he said. “Most of the people who do electronics assembly are Asian women … Some employers do not even pay these women minimum wage and mistreat them in other ways. They should get help and learn about their rights, like I did.”