Immigrants, main victims of wage theft: ‘all they care about is that the job is done’

Audelia Molina, a Mexican immigrant, earned 10 cents for each garment she cut in a Los Angeles workshop, the capital of clothing in the United States.

His salary was so low that he started working 11 hours a day to increase his production.When he asked for an increase, her supervisor denied it, so she resigned in July 2017 and went to a labor lawyer to help her file a demand for unpaid wages before the California Labor Commission.

A year later, Justice ruled that Molina charged an average of 199 dollars a week, which violated labor laws, including those that govern the payment of overtime and those provided that a person must earn at least the minimum salary of the minimum salary of theState, which was $ 10.50 a hour.

Molina's old patron, however, did not pay him the 23.000 dollars owned by the lawyers' services.His best option was to request help from a State Fund for workers in the sector that were stolen.

Molina took more than two years to receive her check and her former employer still did not reimburse the state fund, as required by law.

Molina, who has been living in California for 30 years, was wrapped in a toxic cycle that has existed for centuries: immigrants are responsible for the worst paid and most arduous trades, and they are the main victims of patterns that do not pay just salaries.

And when they go to court or make claims before the authorities, as in the case of Molina, they generally receive a lower compensation than the one that corresponded to them to charge faster or embark on endless processes.

"They pay you what they want," said Molina, who is 58 years old today."The only thing they care about is that the job is done as quickly as possible".

Like American citizens, non -citizens whose jobs are protected by the Fair Work Standards Act (Law of Fair Labor Standards) have the right to collect overtime after working 40 hours per week and a minimum salary.But it is not unusual for an immigrant to have residence permission or not, be intimidated by the pattern - what is illegal - when he tries to assert his rights.

The Department of Labor does not ask the victims of alleged wage theft if they are immigrants or not.He states that he analyzes the cases regardless of the immigration status of workers.

But an analysis made by the Center for Public Integrity (Center for Public Integrity) of statistics from the Department of Labor and the Census Office indicated that the sectors that use the most immigrants have the highest wage theft rates.

Nationally, 16% of US workers were born abroad.But in the area of cutting and sewing clothing, immigrants constitute 42%.It is one of the sectors with the highest percentage of foreigners.

The analysis of the center for public integrity also verified that it is the sector with the second highest average of violations of salary laws in the last 15 years.

Other sectors with a large number of immigrant workers and high incidence of wage theft are that of agriculture, the maintenance of buildings and work in hotels, restaurants and other food services.In some regions, the theft of wages also abounds in areas such as construction, geriatric, deposits and car wash.

The main workers' central of the country, AFL-CIO, says it is essential to legalize the status of the millions of immigrants without residence permission to combat wages theft.After years of paralysis, the Democrats who control Congress have problems carrying out proposals that would clear the path of many immigrants who have been living in the country for years to regularize their status.

"Immigration is an integral part of the country's economic growth," said a 2016 report from the National Academy of Sciences."If the US economy grows and requires more workers to replace those who retire and to create new companies and industries, the main source of employees will be first and second generation immigrants".

In Los Angeles, no one questions that workers without residence permit constitute a significant percentage of 45.000 Latin American and Asian immigrants who work in the workshops that make the clothes that end on the shelves of many thin garments and other stores.When the Covid-19 pandemic arose last year, many workers in the sector produced tapping and another protective team.Some 300 workers contracted the virus in a factory, Los Angeles Apparel, and six of them died.

"Pandemia showed the fact that a large number of immigrant workers, especially undocumented."What are we going to do for them now?" He asked.

Narro supports the idea of allowing these workers to regularize their status, as well as a law that California Gavin Newsom signed on September 27 that authorizes the work on piecework in making garments only as a complement to a job with a basic salaryAnd within the framework of a collective work agreement.

Garment Worker Center staff, a non -profit organization in which Molina learned of their rights, worked years to promote that law.

The center staff says that the salary claims presented had an average salary of $ 5 per hour, well below the stipulated by law.As of 2022, the law will also apply to the stores that work with those workshops.

A century of immigration exploitation

The battle for fair wages in California brings to mind what happened at the beginning of the 20th century, when employees of the sector of clothing of Europe fought by protections that were finally incorporated into the Law of Fair Labor Standards in 1938.

Immigrants worked in very dangerous conditions, such as those that led to the New York Shirtwaist Triangle fire in 1911.The building was wrapped in flames and 146 people died, including 125 immigrant women and girls.

Angry workers demanded laws to be protected and regulated by the work of minors, and gave impulse to the adoption of a minimum national salary.When these reforms were finally approved, immigration had decreased as a result of nativist policies, with quotas and restrictions.

These policies were made to the side in 1970 and immigration rebounded.Between 1990 and 2007 the population of immigrants without residence permission tripled.This generated a block of almost 11 million people who were more vulnerable to labor abuses.

Due to the complaints of abuse, the labor authorities obtained a court order in August that prohibits the owner of a danbury bakery, Connecticut, "to retaliate or any adverse measure, or threaten to take adverse measures" against their employees.

The Department of Labor says that the Padaminas Ny Bakery bakery warned its employees that it would fire them or denounce them to the immigration service agents if they talked to officials of the Labor Department investigating the bakery.The person who answered the bakery phone hung when asked about that subject.

In California, federal labor authorities ordered a Los Angeles County Contractor in May who produces clothing for the firm Anna Bella to pay ten employees 5.$ 846 in backward salaries.Also applied a fine of 3.$ 485 for violating “to knowing” accounting standards and paying their cash workers only.

Ruben Rosalz, regional director of the unit responsible for enforcing the salary laws of the Department of Labor in California, said that, although the authorities do not find out the immigration status of employees, their investigations often lead them to companies that hire “manypeople of color, of mostly immigrant populations ".

"We are in 2021," Rosalez said.“There should be no violations of salary laws in the clothing clothing sector.But there are.In fact, they are quite common ".

Labor authorities enforce a minimum wage of $ 7.25 per hour.If a state or municipality has higher minimum salaries, it is up to local authorities to enforce them.Both make pay for an hour and a half salary for every extra hour worked after 40 hours a week of rigor.

The authorities recently discovered an alleged maneuver to deprive employees of a restaurant chain of overtime payment.Employees of low fresh premises in the Los Angeles area contacted an opportunities center in restaurants (Restaurant Opportunities Center) that defends their interests and that helped their staff, mostly Latin American, to launch an investigation.

La investigación se completó en marzo, en que el comisionado del trabajo acusó a la empresa G & D Investments, Inc., which operates the low fresh restaurants of Los Angeles, and to seven other firms involved and their CEOS, to rotate their employees among their restaurants to work double shifts, without paying them overtime.He said that companies and their CEOs owed 188 employees 375.$ 800 in minimum salaries, extra hours, fines and damage.Companies appealed and the process continues their course. Baja Fresh y G & D Investments no devolvieron numerosas llamadas telefónicas e emails pidiendo comentarios.

When the workers contemplated the possibility of complaining, "some were very afraid," said former Rocío Martínez, 30 years old.He affirmed that the bosses often asked him to work double shifts and that sometimes they said things that made employees feel helpless.

"Things like‘ You can't take a break.You are in the country illegally, ”he said."They said it as if it were a joke, but it wasn't".

The damages to immigrant families

Narro and other researchers from UCLA have been listening to these stories for years.

Numerous reports from the UCLA Labor Center have warned about a “crisis” due to the theft of salaries that deprives the families of immigrants from California.A 2010 report calculated that mostly immigrant workers from Los Angeles County had lost an average of more than 2.000 dollars annually, for a total value of 26 million a week.

The study of unpaid salaries claims can take months, if not years, according to state authorities.The process includes mediations, hearings and appeals, which can reach the courts.And, in the end, some signatures will never pay.

The refusal of the companies of the branch to pay their employees was a problem of such magnitude 20 years ago that the Garment Restitution Fund was created, a fund funded by an annuity of $ 75 charged to companies.The signatures must reimburse the fund when it makes any payment.

The unpaid salaries claims multiplied by proliferating the workshops that charged their clients less and that disappeared overnight.For 2018 the fund was insolvent.Hundreds of people expected their checks and legislators transferred 16.3 million dollars to the fund.

The commissioned work of California Lilia García-Brower says that the State must do more.

"Every day, a person who works hard is deprived of his salary," he said in an event in Los Angeles in February.

Other states also have problems

Immigrants can face even more problems in other states.

In Houston (Texas) the Fe and Justice Workers Center helps immigrants to negotiate directly with the patterns that owe them money.It is estimated that in Houston and its surroundings live half a million people without residence permission, who work in a number of sectors, such as construction, dry cleaning, gardening and deposits.

When an employee makes a claim, some patterns convince them to withdraw it, according to Jessica Lorena Rangel, director of the Community Consultation Legal Center (Legal Center for Community Consultations) of that organization.

"Patterns fill their heads on things.They are told: ‘You can't do anything to me, you have no way out for your status (immigration).You shouldn't even be working.I'm doing you a favor, ”said Rangel.

In a year, the organization received 540 calls in which patterns were accused of not paying at least 1.36 million dollars in salaries.Some victims go to minor claims courts, Rangel said, but face the same problems as in California to collect.

While the claim is accepted, many people rotate between construction works and other labor sites and are considered independent contractors, so they cannot file complaints in those instances in those instances.

In Florida, another state with a strong immigrant population, there is no agency specifically dedicated to the claims of unpaid salaries.

The State Labor Department was abolished in 2002.Alachua, Broward, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Pinellas and Osceola counties have ordinances to combat wages theft.In Miami-Dade, the worker is referred to a mediating service for which he must pay an average of 1.800 dollars, according to Gregory Baker, director of the Consumer Protection Office, which manages that program.

"We do not defend any of the parties," said Baker.If the employer does not comply with the agreement, the worker must seek legal help on his own.

In New York state, workers can go to a system similar to California.But in the metropolitan area of New York City - where up to one million foreigners would live without residence permit - workers are increasingly prone to submit demands in federal courts, according to lawyer Lou Pechman.

Pechman represents immigrants who worked on cleaning Wayfair deposits and distribution centers in New Jersey.Employees say that the firm Dme Janitorial Services paid them from $ 12 to 16 an hour, but without compensating overtime.They assure that they worked up to 90 hours a week.

"The plaintiffs were basically essential workers during the pandemic, ensuring that the facilities they cleaned were disinfected according to the protocols and requirements of COVID-19," says the demand.The company, on the other hand, denies having violated the laws and ensures that it was managed “in an appropriate way...Without malice or attempt to harm anyone ”.

"Simply tell the truth"

The stories of the employees of the clothing of California reveal the importance of organizing workers to enforce their rights.After becoming a seamstress, Audelia Morlina rarely received more than $ 300 a week.Ten years ago, a partner convinced her to join the Garment Worker Center Labor Rights Program.

"I didn't get to study too much in Mexico," said Molina.“When I joined the program, I began to overcome the nerves, the shame.I started talking more firmly ".

Mother of three big children, Molina had the support of her family before leaving her job and demanding.A year later he declared at a hearing of the Office of the Commissioner of Labor in relation to his experience with the firm Callaway Fashion, Inc."One tells herself that there is no reason to get nervous because she is simply telling the truth," he said.

A ruling from the job of the work commissioner says that neither Callaway Fashion nor its owner responded to the claim nor were they submitted to the hearing.The firm's corporate status was suspended, but the State does not say why.Molina presented notes that retained and documented the days and hours she worked, her production and the brands for which she worked.

A year later, the official in charge of the case ordered the company and its executive to pay Molina 39.$ 300 for overtime, fines and damage.He also ordered that Callaway compensated Molina with 21.$ 400 in lawyer expenses as additional punish.

Californian laws contemplate claims aimed at firms that work with a company that has not paid salaries.Before the audience, Molina reached an agreement with Jasmine Sportswear for $ 900 and with six other signatures for a total of 6.$ 600.The official who managed his view ordered Kjen Apparel, INC.Payment of 4.570 dollars and to Du North Designs Ltd.to pay another 3.220 dollars.

Molina's lawyer, Matthew Decarolis, said it is not unusual for a small workshop like Callaway to ignore salary claims and suspend their operations or declare bankruptcy.Decarolis is a Bet Tzedek studio lawyer in Los Angeles, which offers free assistance to workers.

"I have had clients who presented themselves to work and discovered that the factory had disappeared overnight, including machines and everything," said Decarolis.

Public Integrity called two associated numbers with Callaway Fashion, but both were disconnected.

Another worker in the dress sector, a Guatemalan immigrant, filed a claim by arguing that a supervisor had fired her in 2017, after an investigation for unpaid wages.

"I wasn't the person who made the claim.All I did was talk to the researchers when they came to the factory, ”he said, asking for anonymity for fear of reprisals.Officials of the Labor Department asked him questions about the hours he worked.Subsequently, they called her to tell her that her employer, Boss Collection, Inc., owed 4.000 dollars for three months of work.Official documents indicate that the company was ordered to pay 35.000 dollars to 11 employees in 2017.

The Guatemalan worker says that, after charging her 4.000 dollars, a supervisor told her and other employees who had to return to the company the money they had charged.She refused, but others agreed.The woman was fired and charged $ 570 in salaries.

"I was crying because I have a family to maintain," he said.The supervisor, he said, pushed it and "treated me like a puppy," he added.

Months later, Garment Worker Center staff helped her to file a claim against the state work commissioner for additional unpaid wages that went back two years ago.Boss Collection never responded to the claim and the company closed in September 2018.

In a view of 2019, an employee said he worked 11 hours in a row, without rest, and that he was fired.The authorities determined that Boss Collection owed him 92.000 dollars for extra hours, damage and other punishments, plus interest.Before the view the worker charged 4.000 dollars of each of three companies that worked with Boss Collection: Entro, Mana USA and Ashley USA.

Given the uncertainty regarding who supervised employees, the company's owner was not found personally responsible.Like Molina, the Guatemalan employee received her money from the Special Fund...three years after your initial claim.

"I won," said incredulous.

Officials of the Labor Department tried to be reimbursed.On January 21, 2020, the State sent an ultimatum to Boss Collection in relation to the claim of the Guatemalan immigrant.He did the same with Callaway Fashion, the firm for which Audelia Molina worked on May 24, 2019.

They have not yet recovered a penny of either signature.