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Tino Serrano, director of public affairs for the regional office of the Labor Department. Photo by Ji Hyun Lim.
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State Labor Commissioner Pays Back Wages to Wins Workers
Labor Department fines owners maximum penalty
By Ji Hyun Lim
AsianWeek Staff Writer
After harsh criticism from Asian Pacific American community groups, garment workers involved in a 15-month-long case against their former employers finally got some relief when the California labor commissioner announced that the state will pay almost $1 million in back wages to over 200 former employees of Wins of California.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has also assessed civil money penalties totalling $337,000 against the owners of Wins for repeated and willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The wages are being paid from a special state fund for unpaid garment workers. The fund was created in 1980 to ensure that garment workers are paid their wages when irresponsible contractors fail to do so. California garment manufacturers and contractors must register with the state annually, and $75 of each registration fee finances the garment worker fund.
“We have assessed civil money penalties to send a clear signal to all employees that California’s generous action does not absolve employers of their duty to fully and fairly compensate their workers,” said Tammy D. McCutchen, administrator of the department’s Wage and Hour division.
Dating back to July 2001, 20 workers were owed $900,000 in back pay by Wins. Before the workers were able to receive the money, Wins owners Anna Wong and Toha “Jimmy” Quan filed for bankruptcy. The credit company GE Capitol, the bankruptcy trustees and the workers were all fighting to receive the money owed to them.
The court seized Wong and Quan’s money from garment sales, totaling $420,000, and placed it in a lockbox. All of the parties to whom Wins owes money wanted some or all of the proceeds from the lockbox. GE Capitol and the bankruptcy trustees took the DOL to court to try and get what they felt was rightfully theirs. In August of 2001, the court ordered that the money be kept in the lockbox. Lawsuits are still pending.
The DOL sent a letter to the State of California, pushing the state to pay the workers their back wages from that lockbox, to no avail.
Yet, community groups like the San Francisco Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) claimed that all actions by the DOL were kept secret with no worker representative present to articulate grievances or make suggestions. The CPA pointed out that throughout the duration of the process, Wins workers — most of whom speak only Chinese — had no legal representation. The CPA also claimed that the DOL was slow in negotiations and settlement, and that negative press about Elaine Chao and her use of the workers as political tools was the only impetus for the recent efforts.
“Bascially, the Wins workers are very disappointed with the way the DOL has handled the situation,” Philip Chui of CPA explained. “We’ve been contacting the DOL and other organizations, as well as other representatives and received no word back.”
Just last week, Tino Serrano, the head of public relations for the DOL’s northern California regional office, told AsianWeek that he figured most of the workers had new jobs.
Said Serrano: “I’m certain that at this point, most of the people have found other jobs because the only wages they are requesting are three months worth of pay.”
He added: “It wouldn’t make sense that they’d sit around for two years waiting for three months worth of wages. I’m assuming they have found other work. That’s the best they can do.”
Chui said that the DOL has misperceived the situation of the workers and that many are still jobless.
“We’re estimating that a third are still unemployed. A lot of older folks don’t have jobs. A lot of workers are in a very tough situation and other workers, they can’t take time off work from sweatshops to learn English.”
At the Oct. 3 hearing, GE Capitol and the bankruptcy trustees refused to agree to the money issued. Serrano explained that if the DOL settles on the amount that GE Capitol and the trustees want, the workers would receive only 25 cents to the dollar — an amount too nominal to agree upon.
This decision made the DOL realize that they want to use the fund to pay the workers.
“The Labor Department is thrilled that these workers are going to see the money. Both we and the state have been conducting parallel investigations that have been very protracted and drawn out,” Serrano said. “So for the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about the state going ahead and paying the workers.”
The maximum penalty that the DOL has served the Wins owners is another important piece that community groups were pushing for.
“We were looking for prosecution for additional charges,” Leon how, chair of the CPA, said. “The sweatshop owners must still be held accountable so that a clear message is sent to all employers that criminal labor abuses will not be tolerated.”
Reach Ji Hyun Lim at jlim@asianweek.com.
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