Workers Lost Millions to California's Worst Known Wage Thief. And He's Still in Business
The Cheesecake Factory Pays $750,000 in Connection to Wage Theft Case
Cómo un grupo de campesinos denunció a un viñedo por abusos laborales y ganó
How Santa Clara County is Fighting Wage Theft
Amid Rise in Labor Activism in California, on-the-Job Violation and Employer Retaliation Claims Increase
Santa Clara County Pushes Food Businesses to Pay Worker Wages — or Lose Permits
How Workers Took on a Sonoma County Vineyard Company Over Abuses — and Won
Some Migrant Farmworkers to Get Free Legal Help With Immigration
State Wage-Theft Investigators Say Staffing Crisis Is Hurting the Agency
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Shine N Brite Car Wash was cited last November after state regulators found the carwash operator paid workers as low as $7 an hour.","credit":"Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images","altTag":"A group of people holds signs and walks in a line in front of a car wash on a sunny day.","description":null,"imgSizes":{"medium":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-800x533.jpg","width":800,"height":533,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"large":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-1020x680.jpg","width":1020,"height":680,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-160x107.jpg","width":160,"height":107,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"1536x1536":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-1536x1024.jpg","width":1536,"height":1024,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"post-thumbnail":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-672x372.jpg","width":672,"height":372,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"twentyfourteen-full-width":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-1038x576.jpg","width":1038,"height":576,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"full-width":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-1920x1280.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"kqedFullSize":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED.jpg","width":2000,"height":1333}},"fetchFailed":false,"isLoading":false}},"audioPlayerReducer":{"postId":"stream_live"},"authorsReducer":{"byline_news_11959915":{"type":"authors","id":"byline_news_11959915","meta":{"override":true},"slug":"byline_news_11959915","name":"\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/jeanne-kuang/\">Jeanna Kuang\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/alejandra-reyesvelarde/\">Alejandra Reyes-Velarde\u003c/a>","isLoading":false},"byline_news_11956315":{"type":"authors","id":"byline_news_11956315","meta":{"override":true},"slug":"byline_news_11956315","name":"\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/nicole-foy/\">Nicole Foy\u003c/a>","isLoading":false},"ecruzguevarra":{"type":"authors","id":"8654","meta":{"index":"authors_1591205172","id":"8654","found":true},"name":"Ericka Cruz Guevarra","firstName":"Ericka","lastName":"Cruz Guevarra","slug":"ecruzguevarra","email":"ecruzguevarra@kqed.org","display_author_email":true,"staff_mastheads":["news"],"title":"Producer, The Bay Podcast","bio":"Ericka Cruz Guevarra is host of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/thebay\">\u003cem>The Bay\u003c/em>\u003c/a> podcast at KQED. 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And He's Still in Business","publishDate":1710759615,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Workers Lost Millions to California’s Worst Known Wage Thief. And He’s Still in Business | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>California regulators have failed to compel the state’s worst cited wage theft offender to pay the millions of dollars his companies stole from workers, a KQED investigation found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Rafael Rivas’ RDV Construction Inc. and RVR General Construction Inc. to pay $16.2 million for defrauding more than 1,100 workers in Southern California. But the agency, which issued the citations for back wages and penalties in 2018 and 2019, had recovered just 2% as of last month, according to a department spokesman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED reviewed hundreds of pages of state documents and court records, knocked on doors of properties linked to Rivas and interviewed workers the construction contractor cheated to piece together an accounting of the stunning labor violations — and how an understaffed agency was unsuccessful in collecting most of what Rivas and his companies owe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has some of the nation’s strongest employee protections on the books, including \u003ca href=\"https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/labor-code/lab-sect-238/#:~:text=(a)%20If%20a%20final%20judgment,conduct%20business%20in%20this%20state%2C\">against wage theft\u003c/a>. Yet, Rivas’ case signals that the state is not prioritizing restitution for workers when their earnings are withheld, according to workers’ rights advocates and employment attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s outrageous. It’s infuriating,” said Benjamin Wood, a former organizer with the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center who has helped dozens of workers file wage complaints with regulators, including against RDV. “The state has so much power to enforce laws. But when it comes to massive wage theft, it seems like they’re powerless.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11979686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11979686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1240\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4-800x517.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4-1020x659.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4-1536x992.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The California Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Rafael Rivas’ RDV Construction Inc. and RVR General Construction Inc. to pay $16.2 million for defrauding more than 1,100 workers in Southern California. \u003ccite>( Darren Tu/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From 2017 through 2023, the labor commissioner’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/dlse-bofe.html\">Bureau of Field Enforcement\u003c/a> assessed $450.6 million in unpaid wages and penalties against thousands of employers statewide, including Rivas’ companies. The agency recovered as little as 16%, or $74.5 million, according to records it provided to KQED last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The database, however, may contain errors and omissions, according to a department statement. A state employee familiar with the bureau’s case management system said that’s because staff don’t consistently update it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beth Ross, an employment attorney, said the omissions point to a dysfunction at the Labor Commissioner’s Office, which has a critical role in protecting vulnerable workers from abuses and helping to level the playing field for law-abiding employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the agency is not capable of keeping the database updated, then what else is the agency not able to get to?” said Ross, an adjunct professor at UC Law San Francisco. “We know the agency has a very difficult time keeping up with the onslaught of complaints and tips it receives about wage theft and labor law abuse in the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The job vacancy rate at the Labor Commissioner’s Office reached 42% last year, according to an analysis of staffing documents kept by the state Department of Finance. Dozens of wage theft investigators, attorneys and others at the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955920/california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis\">implored state lawmakers\u003c/a> in July to address a hemorrhaging of employees leaving for better-paid positions elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement\"]‘The Labor Commissioner’s Office will continue to explore all avenues towards restitution that are available to our agency.’[/pullquote]The Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, declined interview requests but said in a statement that collection efforts in Rivas’ case are ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Labor Commissioner’s Office will continue to explore all avenues towards restitution that are available to our agency,” said a department spokesperson in a March 14 email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas did not respond to requests for comment by email, phone and messages left in person with an employee at his office in Los Angeles County and on a note at his residential property in San Bernardino County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two family business associates named as co-defendants in one of the wage citations — his brother, Juan Rivas, and cousin, Nicolas Del Villar — also declined interview requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Attorney General’s Office, which can criminally prosecute wage theft cases, declined to answer whether it had taken any action against the employer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To protect its integrity, we’re unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, a potential or ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson for the attorney general wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spokespeople for district attorneys in San Bernardino and Orange counties said they had no records of cases against Rivas or his companies. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office did not return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Victims struggled to pay rent, buy food\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11978868\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11978868\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When Saul Pedroza is not working he finds solace gardening in his home in Anaheim. March 7, 2024. \u003ccite>(Zaydee Sanchez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Javier Gonzalez and Saul Pedroza installed steel rods and wooden frames for RDV Construction in 2016 at an apartment complex in Glendale, north of Los Angeles. The crewmates, both Mexican immigrants, said the company never paid them for about a month of full-time work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisors “started telling us that the paychecks were coming next week, and then next week,” Pedroza, 51, said in Spanish. “That’s how they strung us along.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The carpenters were given paychecks that bounced due to insufficient funds. After they quit, Pedroza and Gonzalez said they went to the worksite and RDV’s offices to demand their earnings, and they both filed wage claims with the Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency determined RDV owes $11,000 to Gonzalez and $12,500 to Pedroza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see it as a mockery of all the people they defrauded and of the government,” Gonzalez, 61, said. “It was a robbery in broad daylight what they did to us.”[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Javier Gonzalez, former RDV Construction employee\"]‘I see it as a mockery of all the people they defrauded and of the government. It was a robbery in broad daylight, what they did to us.’[/pullquote]Pedroza said the theft of his salary meant he couldn’t buy enough food for his four children or pay rent for the family’s mobile home in Anaheim. He said he borrowed money from friends and desperately scrambled for other jobs to avoid eviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a long time that we were doing badly, without any money,” Pedroza told KQED. “It was wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas’ companies underpaid workers at dozens of construction sites from 2014 through 2017, according to investigations by the Bureau of Field Enforcement. In 2018, the labor commissioner cited RDV for nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478392-rdv-wage-citation-2018\">$12 million \u003c/a>in unpaid wages and penalties. It was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wagetheft-construction-20190211-story.html\">largest \u003c/a>citation the agency ever issued. The following year, RVR was hit with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478391-rvr-wage-citation-2019\">$4.3 million citation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Stealing earned wages from workers’ pockets is illegal in California, and this case shows that employers who steal from their workers will end up paying for it,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2019/2019-16.html\">said\u003c/a> California Labor Secretary Julie Su at the time, who now heads the U.S. Department of Labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Delays Gave Rivas Time to Minimize Payments\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rivas appealed the citations. Disruptions during the pandemic further delayed attempts to recover any funds, providing Rivas years to take steps that would limit the labor commissioner’s ability to collect the fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478388-220520-dismissal-of-citation-appeal\">dismissed\u003c/a> Rivas’ appeals in May 2022, he had filed for federal bankruptcy protection for RVR. He also closed down RDV, with the company’s contractor license \u003ca href=\"https://cslb.ca.gov/942568\">expiring\u003c/a> in April 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That meant state claims against RVR, which continues to operate, could not legally be collected outside of bankruptcy court, and obtaining funds from RDV would be very difficult, according to several legal experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s next to impossible to collect from a company that’s closed unless they have real estate or other assets, which would be very rare, particularly for a small construction contractor,” said Greg Groeneveld, an attorney in San Francisco who specializes in enforcing wage judgments. “But you can sometimes pursue the owners of that company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The labor commissioner may still choose to target individual defendants cited, including Rivas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When an employer doesn’t pay a wage fine that’s deemed final, the agency requests a state court to order payment. The civil judgment generally allows a creditor to use tools such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.courts.ca.gov/partners/documents/collecting.pdf\">liens and levies\u003c/a> to try to recover what is owed. [aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"wage-theft\"]Many employers agree to settle before a court issues a judgment against them. But others don’t have the money or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">try to dodge payments\u003c/a>, including by closing their companies or transferring ownership of real estate as a way to hide assets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Orange County Superior Court awarded the labor commissioner a judgment against Rivas, Juan Rivas, Del Villar and RDV last year. However, investigating a debtor’s true ability to pay can be time-consuming and difficult, and it’s unclear what of the individuals’ personal assets the department has tracked as eligible for collections. The labor commissioner’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Judgment-Enforcement-Unit.html\">Judgment Enforcement Unit\u003c/a>, tasked with recovering funds in thousands of unpaid judgments, had 16 out of 28 positions filled last year, according to the Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Bernardino County Assessor’s records show Rivas transferred at least one commercial property in Fontana, which is listed as RVR’s official business address, to a family member, Rosa Rivas, months after filing for the company’s bankruptcy. Rivas also owns an adjacent vacant plot of land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commercial property, with a Zillow estimated market value of $1.4 million, has a barber shop and hair salon facing the street and a one-story home standing in the back. A woman who told KQED she was eating lunch at the home identified herself only as Rivas’ ex, adding that they no longer spoke to each other. She declined to give more information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to hear anything else about him,” she said before closing the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three miles away, no one opened the door at a residential property owned by Rivas. A reporter observed a luxury Maserati Grecale purchased last spring, according to a document taped to its windshield, and a Ford F-550 flatbed truck were parked on the driveway. KQED could not confirm that Rivas owns the vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who is Rafael Rivas?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rivas started working in construction as a teenager more than 45 years ago, according to documents filed by his attorney in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former day laborer went on to grow businesses that earned millions of dollars per year, building private hotels, mixed-use buildings, luxury apartments and at least one affordable housing project near downtown Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas, 61, co-founded RDV Construction in 2010 with Juan Rivas and Del Villar. The following year, Rivas launched RVR General Construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, Rivas blamed his family business partners for the wage theft violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Attorney Michael Jones, represents RVR General Construction Inc.\"]‘Rivas was certain he had not violated any such regulations and later learned that the family partners were the source of problems.’[/pullquote]“Rivas was certain he had not violated any such regulations and later learned that the family partners were the source of problems,” according to filings by attorney Michael Jones, who represented RVR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Realizing that he was not compatible with the family partners as business associates, Rivas did venture out on his own and began doing business by himself through RVR,” Jones added. “However, a significant amount of damage had already been done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate case, the labor commissioner determined RDV owed $314,500 for underpaying more than a dozen carpenters employed at a Los Angeles public housing project in 2015 and 2016. Rivas settled for an undisclosed amount after the Contractors State License Board \u003ca href=\"https://www.cslb.ca.gov/contractors/license_problems/Suspended_License.aspx\">suspended\u003c/a> his companies’ licenses to operate until the judgment was resolved, said Katherine White, chief of public affairs at the license board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas’ companies repeatedly violated workplace standards, paying about $37,000 in back wages and damages to the U.S. Department of Labor in 2017, and additional fines to other regulators. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health penalized RDV and RVR, including for safety violations related to the 2015 \u003ca href=\"https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1142715.015&id=1110939.015&id=1107842.015\">death\u003c/a> of an employee who fell 40 feet from a roof opening.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How much is the labor commissioner set to recover in Rivas’ case?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>So far, the labor commissioner has collected $277,000 towards the two multi-million citations, including through a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cslb.ca.gov/consumers/legal_issues_for_consumers/mechanics_lien/What_Is_A_Mechanics_Lien.aspx#:~:text=A%20mechanics%20lien%20is%20a,property%20in%20lieu%20of%20compensation.\">mechanics lien\u003c/a> and a payment plan for RVR to emerge from \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/ust/bankruptcy-fact-sheets/overview-bankruptcy-chapters#:~:text=A%20consumer%20debtor%20receives%20a,discharge%20by%20the%20Bankruptcy%20Code.&text=Chapter%2011%20bankruptcy%20provides%20a,debts%20while%20continuing%20to%20operate.\">Chapter 11\u003c/a> bankruptcy, said Peter Melton, a spokesperson with the Department of Industrial Relations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can confirm the Labor Commissioner’s Office (LCO) has received over $164,000 from Chapter 11 bankruptcy payments as part of our judgment enforcement efforts in this case,” said Melton in an email. “LCO also collected and disbursed $100,000 on a mechanics lien lawsuit against this employer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bankruptcy payments appear to be the only restitution the agency is currently receiving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Beth Ross, employment attorney\"]‘It’s really a shame. These workers are so unlikely to see any amounts of money that could remedy the wrong that they suffered. And that’s if you can find them. As time goes on, fewer and fewer of these workers will be found.’[/pullquote]RVR agreed to pay at least 10% of its total income until it fully covers or settles the labor commissioner’s $7.6 million claim, according to bankruptcy documents. The company projects installments of about $150,000 per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that rate, it would take RVR 50 years to settle the debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a shame,” said Ross, the employment attorney. “These workers are so unlikely to see any amounts of money that could remedy the wrong that they suffered. And that’s if you can find them. As time goes on, fewer and fewer of these workers will be found.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://lnbyg.com/team/daniel-h-reiss/\">Daniel Reiss\u003c/a>, a bankruptcy lawyer who reviewed RVR’s case for KQED, said an important question now is how the labor commissioner is monitoring the company’s income to ensure their payments comply with the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on RVR’s financial picture, the agency could still push for a shorter-term deal through a court mediation panel, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can make a negotiation with respect to getting money now while everybody’s still alive, as opposed to having no idea if it will ever be paid off,” said Reiss, who is also a bankruptcy mediator for the Central District of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Construction companies led by the same man, Rafael Rivas, owed more than $16 million in unpaid wages and penalties issued by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office. But the agency had collected just 2% as of last month.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1710797636,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":55,"wordCount":2548},"headData":{"title":"Workers Lost Millions to California's Worst Known Wage Thief. And He's Still in Business | KQED","description":"Construction companies led by the same man, Rafael Rivas, owed more than $16 million in unpaid wages and penalties issued by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office. But the agency had collected just 2% as of last month.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Workers Lost Millions to California's Worst Known Wage Thief. And He's Still in Business","datePublished":"2024-03-18T11:00:15.000Z","dateModified":"2024-03-18T21:33:56.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-41c5-bcaf-aaef00f5a073/1012e8e4-1f00-4bf7-be87-b1370104f15a/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California regulators have failed to compel the state’s worst cited wage theft offender to pay the millions of dollars his companies stole from workers, a KQED investigation found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Rafael Rivas’ RDV Construction Inc. and RVR General Construction Inc. to pay $16.2 million for defrauding more than 1,100 workers in Southern California. But the agency, which issued the citations for back wages and penalties in 2018 and 2019, had recovered just 2% as of last month, according to a department spokesman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED reviewed hundreds of pages of state documents and court records, knocked on doors of properties linked to Rivas and interviewed workers the construction contractor cheated to piece together an accounting of the stunning labor violations — and how an understaffed agency was unsuccessful in collecting most of what Rivas and his companies owe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has some of the nation’s strongest employee protections on the books, including \u003ca href=\"https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/labor-code/lab-sect-238/#:~:text=(a)%20If%20a%20final%20judgment,conduct%20business%20in%20this%20state%2C\">against wage theft\u003c/a>. Yet, Rivas’ case signals that the state is not prioritizing restitution for workers when their earnings are withheld, according to workers’ rights advocates and employment attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s outrageous. It’s infuriating,” said Benjamin Wood, a former organizer with the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center who has helped dozens of workers file wage complaints with regulators, including against RDV. “The state has so much power to enforce laws. But when it comes to massive wage theft, it seems like they’re powerless.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11979686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11979686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1240\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4-800x517.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4-1020x659.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/wage-theft_4-1536x992.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The California Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Rafael Rivas’ RDV Construction Inc. and RVR General Construction Inc. to pay $16.2 million for defrauding more than 1,100 workers in Southern California. \u003ccite>( Darren Tu/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From 2017 through 2023, the labor commissioner’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/dlse-bofe.html\">Bureau of Field Enforcement\u003c/a> assessed $450.6 million in unpaid wages and penalties against thousands of employers statewide, including Rivas’ companies. The agency recovered as little as 16%, or $74.5 million, according to records it provided to KQED last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The database, however, may contain errors and omissions, according to a department statement. A state employee familiar with the bureau’s case management system said that’s because staff don’t consistently update it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beth Ross, an employment attorney, said the omissions point to a dysfunction at the Labor Commissioner’s Office, which has a critical role in protecting vulnerable workers from abuses and helping to level the playing field for law-abiding employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the agency is not capable of keeping the database updated, then what else is the agency not able to get to?” said Ross, an adjunct professor at UC Law San Francisco. “We know the agency has a very difficult time keeping up with the onslaught of complaints and tips it receives about wage theft and labor law abuse in the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The job vacancy rate at the Labor Commissioner’s Office reached 42% last year, according to an analysis of staffing documents kept by the state Department of Finance. Dozens of wage theft investigators, attorneys and others at the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955920/california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis\">implored state lawmakers\u003c/a> in July to address a hemorrhaging of employees leaving for better-paid positions elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The Labor Commissioner’s Office will continue to explore all avenues towards restitution that are available to our agency.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, declined interview requests but said in a statement that collection efforts in Rivas’ case are ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Labor Commissioner’s Office will continue to explore all avenues towards restitution that are available to our agency,” said a department spokesperson in a March 14 email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas did not respond to requests for comment by email, phone and messages left in person with an employee at his office in Los Angeles County and on a note at his residential property in San Bernardino County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two family business associates named as co-defendants in one of the wage citations — his brother, Juan Rivas, and cousin, Nicolas Del Villar — also declined interview requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Attorney General’s Office, which can criminally prosecute wage theft cases, declined to answer whether it had taken any action against the employer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To protect its integrity, we’re unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, a potential or ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson for the attorney general wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spokespeople for district attorneys in San Bernardino and Orange counties said they had no records of cases against Rivas or his companies. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office did not return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Victims struggled to pay rent, buy food\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11978868\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11978868\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/SAUL-PEDROZA-15-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When Saul Pedroza is not working he finds solace gardening in his home in Anaheim. March 7, 2024. \u003ccite>(Zaydee Sanchez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Javier Gonzalez and Saul Pedroza installed steel rods and wooden frames for RDV Construction in 2016 at an apartment complex in Glendale, north of Los Angeles. The crewmates, both Mexican immigrants, said the company never paid them for about a month of full-time work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisors “started telling us that the paychecks were coming next week, and then next week,” Pedroza, 51, said in Spanish. “That’s how they strung us along.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The carpenters were given paychecks that bounced due to insufficient funds. After they quit, Pedroza and Gonzalez said they went to the worksite and RDV’s offices to demand their earnings, and they both filed wage claims with the Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency determined RDV owes $11,000 to Gonzalez and $12,500 to Pedroza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see it as a mockery of all the people they defrauded and of the government,” Gonzalez, 61, said. “It was a robbery in broad daylight what they did to us.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I see it as a mockery of all the people they defrauded and of the government. It was a robbery in broad daylight, what they did to us.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Javier Gonzalez, former RDV Construction employee","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Pedroza said the theft of his salary meant he couldn’t buy enough food for his four children or pay rent for the family’s mobile home in Anaheim. He said he borrowed money from friends and desperately scrambled for other jobs to avoid eviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a long time that we were doing badly, without any money,” Pedroza told KQED. “It was wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas’ companies underpaid workers at dozens of construction sites from 2014 through 2017, according to investigations by the Bureau of Field Enforcement. In 2018, the labor commissioner cited RDV for nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478392-rdv-wage-citation-2018\">$12 million \u003c/a>in unpaid wages and penalties. It was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wagetheft-construction-20190211-story.html\">largest \u003c/a>citation the agency ever issued. The following year, RVR was hit with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478391-rvr-wage-citation-2019\">$4.3 million citation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Stealing earned wages from workers’ pockets is illegal in California, and this case shows that employers who steal from their workers will end up paying for it,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2019/2019-16.html\">said\u003c/a> California Labor Secretary Julie Su at the time, who now heads the U.S. Department of Labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Delays Gave Rivas Time to Minimize Payments\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rivas appealed the citations. Disruptions during the pandemic further delayed attempts to recover any funds, providing Rivas years to take steps that would limit the labor commissioner’s ability to collect the fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478388-220520-dismissal-of-citation-appeal\">dismissed\u003c/a> Rivas’ appeals in May 2022, he had filed for federal bankruptcy protection for RVR. He also closed down RDV, with the company’s contractor license \u003ca href=\"https://cslb.ca.gov/942568\">expiring\u003c/a> in April 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That meant state claims against RVR, which continues to operate, could not legally be collected outside of bankruptcy court, and obtaining funds from RDV would be very difficult, according to several legal experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s next to impossible to collect from a company that’s closed unless they have real estate or other assets, which would be very rare, particularly for a small construction contractor,” said Greg Groeneveld, an attorney in San Francisco who specializes in enforcing wage judgments. “But you can sometimes pursue the owners of that company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The labor commissioner may still choose to target individual defendants cited, including Rivas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When an employer doesn’t pay a wage fine that’s deemed final, the agency requests a state court to order payment. The civil judgment generally allows a creditor to use tools such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.courts.ca.gov/partners/documents/collecting.pdf\">liens and levies\u003c/a> to try to recover what is owed. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","tag":"wage-theft"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Many employers agree to settle before a court issues a judgment against them. But others don’t have the money or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">try to dodge payments\u003c/a>, including by closing their companies or transferring ownership of real estate as a way to hide assets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Orange County Superior Court awarded the labor commissioner a judgment against Rivas, Juan Rivas, Del Villar and RDV last year. However, investigating a debtor’s true ability to pay can be time-consuming and difficult, and it’s unclear what of the individuals’ personal assets the department has tracked as eligible for collections. The labor commissioner’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Judgment-Enforcement-Unit.html\">Judgment Enforcement Unit\u003c/a>, tasked with recovering funds in thousands of unpaid judgments, had 16 out of 28 positions filled last year, according to the Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Bernardino County Assessor’s records show Rivas transferred at least one commercial property in Fontana, which is listed as RVR’s official business address, to a family member, Rosa Rivas, months after filing for the company’s bankruptcy. Rivas also owns an adjacent vacant plot of land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commercial property, with a Zillow estimated market value of $1.4 million, has a barber shop and hair salon facing the street and a one-story home standing in the back. A woman who told KQED she was eating lunch at the home identified herself only as Rivas’ ex, adding that they no longer spoke to each other. She declined to give more information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to hear anything else about him,” she said before closing the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three miles away, no one opened the door at a residential property owned by Rivas. A reporter observed a luxury Maserati Grecale purchased last spring, according to a document taped to its windshield, and a Ford F-550 flatbed truck were parked on the driveway. KQED could not confirm that Rivas owns the vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who is Rafael Rivas?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rivas started working in construction as a teenager more than 45 years ago, according to documents filed by his attorney in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former day laborer went on to grow businesses that earned millions of dollars per year, building private hotels, mixed-use buildings, luxury apartments and at least one affordable housing project near downtown Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas, 61, co-founded RDV Construction in 2010 with Juan Rivas and Del Villar. The following year, Rivas launched RVR General Construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, Rivas blamed his family business partners for the wage theft violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Rivas was certain he had not violated any such regulations and later learned that the family partners were the source of problems.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Attorney Michael Jones, represents RVR General Construction Inc.","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Rivas was certain he had not violated any such regulations and later learned that the family partners were the source of problems,” according to filings by attorney Michael Jones, who represented RVR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Realizing that he was not compatible with the family partners as business associates, Rivas did venture out on his own and began doing business by himself through RVR,” Jones added. “However, a significant amount of damage had already been done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate case, the labor commissioner determined RDV owed $314,500 for underpaying more than a dozen carpenters employed at a Los Angeles public housing project in 2015 and 2016. Rivas settled for an undisclosed amount after the Contractors State License Board \u003ca href=\"https://www.cslb.ca.gov/contractors/license_problems/Suspended_License.aspx\">suspended\u003c/a> his companies’ licenses to operate until the judgment was resolved, said Katherine White, chief of public affairs at the license board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas’ companies repeatedly violated workplace standards, paying about $37,000 in back wages and damages to the U.S. Department of Labor in 2017, and additional fines to other regulators. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health penalized RDV and RVR, including for safety violations related to the 2015 \u003ca href=\"https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1142715.015&id=1110939.015&id=1107842.015\">death\u003c/a> of an employee who fell 40 feet from a roof opening.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How much is the labor commissioner set to recover in Rivas’ case?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>So far, the labor commissioner has collected $277,000 towards the two multi-million citations, including through a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cslb.ca.gov/consumers/legal_issues_for_consumers/mechanics_lien/What_Is_A_Mechanics_Lien.aspx#:~:text=A%20mechanics%20lien%20is%20a,property%20in%20lieu%20of%20compensation.\">mechanics lien\u003c/a> and a payment plan for RVR to emerge from \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/ust/bankruptcy-fact-sheets/overview-bankruptcy-chapters#:~:text=A%20consumer%20debtor%20receives%20a,discharge%20by%20the%20Bankruptcy%20Code.&text=Chapter%2011%20bankruptcy%20provides%20a,debts%20while%20continuing%20to%20operate.\">Chapter 11\u003c/a> bankruptcy, said Peter Melton, a spokesperson with the Department of Industrial Relations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can confirm the Labor Commissioner’s Office (LCO) has received over $164,000 from Chapter 11 bankruptcy payments as part of our judgment enforcement efforts in this case,” said Melton in an email. “LCO also collected and disbursed $100,000 on a mechanics lien lawsuit against this employer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bankruptcy payments appear to be the only restitution the agency is currently receiving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘It’s really a shame. These workers are so unlikely to see any amounts of money that could remedy the wrong that they suffered. And that’s if you can find them. As time goes on, fewer and fewer of these workers will be found.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Beth Ross, employment attorney","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>RVR agreed to pay at least 10% of its total income until it fully covers or settles the labor commissioner’s $7.6 million claim, according to bankruptcy documents. The company projects installments of about $150,000 per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that rate, it would take RVR 50 years to settle the debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a shame,” said Ross, the employment attorney. “These workers are so unlikely to see any amounts of money that could remedy the wrong that they suffered. And that’s if you can find them. As time goes on, fewer and fewer of these workers will be found.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://lnbyg.com/team/daniel-h-reiss/\">Daniel Reiss\u003c/a>, a bankruptcy lawyer who reviewed RVR’s case for KQED, said an important question now is how the labor commissioner is monitoring the company’s income to ensure their payments comply with the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on RVR’s financial picture, the agency could still push for a shorter-term deal through a court mediation panel, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can make a negotiation with respect to getting money now while everybody’s still alive, as opposed to having no idea if it will ever be paid off,” said Reiss, who is also a bankruptcy mediator for the Central District of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business","authors":["8659"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_30731","news_27626","news_18208"],"featImg":"news_11978869","label":"news"},"news_11973279":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11973279","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11973279","score":null,"sort":[1705969213000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"the-cheesecake-factory-pays-750000-in-connection-to-wage-theft-case","title":"The Cheesecake Factory Pays $750,000 in Connection to Wage Theft Case","publishDate":1705969213,"format":"standard","headTitle":"The Cheesecake Factory Pays $750,000 in Connection to Wage Theft Case | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>The Cheesecake Factory and two janitorial contractors have paid $1 million in connection to a state wage theft investigation involving hundreds of workers who cleaned the company’s restaurants in San Diego and Orange counties, KQED has learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower is expected to announce the settlement, deemed groundbreaking in the janitorial industry, Tuesday morning in San Diego.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Rafael Ventura, field director with the nonprofit Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund\"]‘This sends a message to companies that they must ensure their contractors are operating legally and pay their workers properly. Otherwise, they are also going to be responsible for those violations.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2018/2018-40.pdf\">cited (PDF)\u003c/a> the popular restaurant chain, as well as Magic Touch Commercial Cleaning and Americlean Janitorial Services, for more than $4.5 million in 2018. State investigators uncovered minimum wage, overtime and other employment violations involving more than 550 janitors during a period from 2014 to 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was so much wage theft,” said Rafael Ventura, field director with the nonprofit Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, which worked with dozens of victims to assist state regulators in pursuing the case. “This ensures that workers can recover the wages owed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most businesses with a workforce of 25 or more must share with their labor contractors civil liability for the payment of wages under a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1897\">California law\u003c/a> that went into effect in 2015. The Cheesecake Factory case marks the first time a company pays money in connection to violations by a janitorial contractor in an industry where contracting and subcontracting are common, Ventura said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This sends a message to companies that they must ensure their contractors are operating legally and pay their workers properly,” he said. “Otherwise, they are also going to be responsible for those violations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Office found janitors were told to stay at restaurants after their eight-hour night shift until Cheesecake Factory kitchen managers reviewed their work, which generally added more tasks and accrued unpaid overtime hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the settlement, The Cheesecake Factory’s share of the total amount was $750,000. Contractor Americlean, which subcontracted work to Magic Touch, agreed to pay $200,000. Magic Touch managed the janitors directly and settled for $50,000, according to a copy of the deal obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naxhili Perez, who worked polishing floors at a location in San Diego’s Seaport District, said she was paid $70 a day but often worked longer than 10 hours. To make ends meet, the 41-year-old mom of four worked a second job cleaning homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez, a Mexican immigrant, admitted she didn’t initially realize her employer, Zulma Villegas of Magic Touch, was shorting her paychecks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than five years after the wage theft citation, Perez said she wished more money had been recovered, given the large number of affected janitors. But she said she also understood the companies fought the charges, and regulators agreed to reduce the amount owed to finally resolve the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what they [regulators] were able to achieve because this was going to drag on,” said Perez in Spanish as she picked up her youngest child from school. “I am thankful to all the people that have helped us. If the Labor Commissioner hadn’t gotten involved, we’d all be in the same situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cheesecake Factory did not return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the three defendants admitted they had engaged in any unlawful conduct in the settlement agreement. However, the two contractors apologized to the affected janitors through handwritten notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your rights as employees were violated when you worked for my company while cleaning the Cheesecake Factory Restaurants,” read the note from Villegas. “I am sorry that I did not fulfill all of my obligations under the law as an employer, some of which were out of my control and for any negative impact to your lives and families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Americlean, a company with headquarters in Minneapolis doing business as Allied National Services, said it “could have overseen Magic Touch better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the future, we will take the necessary steps to comply with California law,” read the company’s statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The settlement includes additional obligations for Cheesecake, such as training restaurant managers and corporate officers in California to oversee janitorial contracts and requiring future and renewed janitorial contractors to be subject to audits by the company on wage issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Gould, a professor at Stanford Law School described the settlement as a “modest one,” in part because it failed to include an independent monitor or another mechanism to ensure the company followed through on its promises.[aside tag=\"wage-theft\" label=\"More Related Stories\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This omission was concerning, he said, because the Labor Commissioner’s Office is severely understaffed and has limited enforcement capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most important part of the law is enforcement, following up,” said Gould, a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. “You’ve got to actually go to the facilities and talk to the workers to see whether the statements made by the company jive with what is happening to the workers in the workplace.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defendants agreed to send checks to the Labor Commissioner’s Office within five days of the execution of the settlement, which was signed by company representatives last fall. The agency plans to distribute the funds to the affected janitors. But it will be difficult to locate many of the victims since seven to 10 years have elapsed since the date of the wage violations, said workers’ rights advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The Cheesecake Factory and 2 janitorial contractors have paid $1 million in connection to a state wage theft investigation involving hundreds of workers who cleaned the company’s restaurants in San Diego and Orange counties. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1706030783,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":24,"wordCount":967},"headData":{"title":"The Cheesecake Factory Pays $750,000 in Connection to Wage Theft Case | KQED","description":"The Cheesecake Factory and 2 janitorial contractors have paid $1 million in connection to a state wage theft investigation involving hundreds of workers who cleaned the company’s restaurants in San Diego and Orange counties. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"The Cheesecake Factory Pays $750,000 in Connection to Wage Theft Case","datePublished":"2024-01-23T00:20:13.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-23T17:26:23.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11973279/the-cheesecake-factory-pays-750000-in-connection-to-wage-theft-case","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Cheesecake Factory and two janitorial contractors have paid $1 million in connection to a state wage theft investigation involving hundreds of workers who cleaned the company’s restaurants in San Diego and Orange counties, KQED has learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower is expected to announce the settlement, deemed groundbreaking in the janitorial industry, Tuesday morning in San Diego.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘This sends a message to companies that they must ensure their contractors are operating legally and pay their workers properly. Otherwise, they are also going to be responsible for those violations.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Rafael Ventura, field director with the nonprofit Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2018/2018-40.pdf\">cited (PDF)\u003c/a> the popular restaurant chain, as well as Magic Touch Commercial Cleaning and Americlean Janitorial Services, for more than $4.5 million in 2018. State investigators uncovered minimum wage, overtime and other employment violations involving more than 550 janitors during a period from 2014 to 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was so much wage theft,” said Rafael Ventura, field director with the nonprofit Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, which worked with dozens of victims to assist state regulators in pursuing the case. “This ensures that workers can recover the wages owed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most businesses with a workforce of 25 or more must share with their labor contractors civil liability for the payment of wages under a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1897\">California law\u003c/a> that went into effect in 2015. The Cheesecake Factory case marks the first time a company pays money in connection to violations by a janitorial contractor in an industry where contracting and subcontracting are common, Ventura said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This sends a message to companies that they must ensure their contractors are operating legally and pay their workers properly,” he said. “Otherwise, they are also going to be responsible for those violations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Office found janitors were told to stay at restaurants after their eight-hour night shift until Cheesecake Factory kitchen managers reviewed their work, which generally added more tasks and accrued unpaid overtime hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the settlement, The Cheesecake Factory’s share of the total amount was $750,000. Contractor Americlean, which subcontracted work to Magic Touch, agreed to pay $200,000. Magic Touch managed the janitors directly and settled for $50,000, according to a copy of the deal obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naxhili Perez, who worked polishing floors at a location in San Diego’s Seaport District, said she was paid $70 a day but often worked longer than 10 hours. To make ends meet, the 41-year-old mom of four worked a second job cleaning homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez, a Mexican immigrant, admitted she didn’t initially realize her employer, Zulma Villegas of Magic Touch, was shorting her paychecks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than five years after the wage theft citation, Perez said she wished more money had been recovered, given the large number of affected janitors. But she said she also understood the companies fought the charges, and regulators agreed to reduce the amount owed to finally resolve the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what they [regulators] were able to achieve because this was going to drag on,” said Perez in Spanish as she picked up her youngest child from school. “I am thankful to all the people that have helped us. If the Labor Commissioner hadn’t gotten involved, we’d all be in the same situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cheesecake Factory did not return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the three defendants admitted they had engaged in any unlawful conduct in the settlement agreement. However, the two contractors apologized to the affected janitors through handwritten notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your rights as employees were violated when you worked for my company while cleaning the Cheesecake Factory Restaurants,” read the note from Villegas. “I am sorry that I did not fulfill all of my obligations under the law as an employer, some of which were out of my control and for any negative impact to your lives and families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Americlean, a company with headquarters in Minneapolis doing business as Allied National Services, said it “could have overseen Magic Touch better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the future, we will take the necessary steps to comply with California law,” read the company’s statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The settlement includes additional obligations for Cheesecake, such as training restaurant managers and corporate officers in California to oversee janitorial contracts and requiring future and renewed janitorial contractors to be subject to audits by the company on wage issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Gould, a professor at Stanford Law School described the settlement as a “modest one,” in part because it failed to include an independent monitor or another mechanism to ensure the company followed through on its promises.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"tag":"wage-theft","label":"More Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This omission was concerning, he said, because the Labor Commissioner’s Office is severely understaffed and has limited enforcement capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most important part of the law is enforcement, following up,” said Gould, a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. “You’ve got to actually go to the facilities and talk to the workers to see whether the statements made by the company jive with what is happening to the workers in the workplace.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defendants agreed to send checks to the Labor Commissioner’s Office within five days of the execution of the settlement, which was signed by company representatives last fall. The agency plans to distribute the funds to the affected janitors. But it will be difficult to locate many of the victims since seven to 10 years have elapsed since the date of the wage violations, said workers’ rights advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11973279/the-cheesecake-factory-pays-750000-in-connection-to-wage-theft-case","authors":["8659"],"categories":["news_31795","news_6188","news_28250","news_8"],"tags":["news_33755","news_27626","news_18208"],"featImg":"news_11973283","label":"news"},"news_11957505":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11957505","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11957505","score":null,"sort":[1694516454000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"campesinos-denunciaron-a-un-vinedo-por-abusos-laborales-y-ganaron","title":"Cómo un grupo de campesinos denunció a un viñedo por abusos laborales y ganó","publishDate":1694516454,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Cómo un grupo de campesinos denunció a un viñedo por abusos laborales y ganó | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956413/how-california-farmworkers-took-on-a-sonoma-winery-over-abuses-and-won\">\u003cem>Read in English\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mauritson Farms Inc. en el condado de Sonoma pagará 328 mil 077 dólares a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">21 de sus ex empleados\u003c/a> como parte de un \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23885712/settlement-agreement-june-2023.pdf\">acuerdo legal\u003c/a> con la Junta de Relaciones Laborales Agrícolas de California (ALRB, por sus siglas en inglés), el mayor acuerdo monetario que se ha visto en la oficina de Santa Rosa de esta dependencia. Funcionarios de la ALRB, junto con decenas de activistas laborales y trabajadores agrícolas, anunciaron el acuerdo en una conferencia de prensa el lunes 24 de julio de 2023 en Healdsburg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mauritson Farms Inc, que gestiona los viñedos, es una empresa independiente y distinta de Mauritson Wines. Ambas empresas son propiedad de la familia Mauritson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tras una investigación impulsada por las quejas de los trabajadores agrícolas, los funcionarios del ALRB determinaron que Mauritson Farms tomó represalias contra el equipo entero de antiguos empleados porque algunos de ellos se organizaron a finales de la temporada de cultivo de 2021 para denunciar las condiciones de trabajo inseguras en los viñedos de Mauritson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Debemos reconocer que se trata de una victoria iniciada por los trabajadores para defender no sólo sus derechos, sino también su dignidad”, dijo el activista Davin Cárdenas en una conferencia que se llevó a cabo el pasado 24 de julio. Cárdenas es el director de la organización North Bay Jobs With Justice (NBJWJ, por sus siglas en inglés), un grupo de derechos laborales que apoyó a los trabajadores en su denuncia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Se trata de un caso que establece un precedente para otros trabajadores de la región”, afirmó Cárdenas.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Miguel Ángel Bravo Silva, uno de los seis trabajadores que denunciaron el trato recibido en Mauritson\"]‘Después de tantos abusos, creo que es justo que se respeten nuestros derechos y se nos respete por lo que somos.’[/pullquote]Los trabajadores implicados eran inmigrantes mexicanos, originarios del estado de Oaxaca, y se encontraban en los Estados Unidos con la visa H-2A, que permite a los trabajadores agrícolas permanecer en el país por períodos limitados.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED r\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">eportó por vez primera el año pasado\u003c/a> que ninguno de los trabajadores oaxaqueños que denunciaron los hechos en 2021 fueron recontratados para la temporada de cultivo de 2022, pese a las promesas que hizo la dirección de la empresa. En su denuncia presentada contra Mauritson el pasado mes de marzo, el ALRB \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23885711/alrb-complaint-march-2023.pdf\">determinó que el hecho de que Mauritson no volviera a contratar a estos trabajadores representa una violación de sus derechos laborales\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cuando recibí la noticia, agradecí a Dios que se ganó porque no fue nada fácil. Teníamos mucho miedo de hablar. Fue un proceso complicado, pero hay que quitarse ese miedo”, dijo Martín Sandoval Rivera, uno de los trabajadores que denunció las condiciones en Mauritson Farms. Actualmente se encuentra en Oaxaca, con varios trabajos para mantener a su familia.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nSandoval Rivera y sus compañeros dijeron que sufrieron acoso verbal por parte de su supervisor, que se les negó sombra mientras trabajaban en los campos cuando las temperaturas superaban los 90 grados Fahrenheit (equivalente a 32 centígrados) y que no recibieron sus períodos de descanso y almuerzo en algunas ocasiones. Todo esto viola las regulaciones laborales de California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seis de los trabajadores, incluido Sandoval Rivera, buscaron el apoyo del grupo de derechos laborales NBJWJ para mediar en la situación. NBJWJ organizó una reunión con los trabajadores y los directivos de la empresa en octubre de 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En esa reunión, el director del viñedo, Cameron Mauritson, prometió que las condiciones en los campos mejorarían y \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">aseguró a los trabajadores que volvería a contratarlos en 2022\u003c/a>, aliviando así la mayor preocupación de los trabajadores: que se les fuera a negar empleo en el futuro por haber pedido mejoras laborales. Después de esa plática, Mauritson Farms, que según los trabajadores previamente gestionaba el proceso de contratación a través de las redes sociales, contrató a CIERTO Global, una empresa multinacional que busca mano de obra en el extranjero para el sector agrícola de Estados Unidos.[aside postID=\"news_11919450\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/07/FarmworkersIlloVignet-1020x659-1.jpg\"]Mauritson Farms pide a CIERTO Global que busque a trabajadores para la temporada de 2022, y por ende le cierra la puerta a los campesinos oaxaqueños. Según la denuncia del ALRB, para las empresas de cultivo de uva, CIERTO Global sólo recluta a trabajadores que viven en el estado mexicano de Baja California, no en Oaxaca.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Además, las capturas de pantalla de un grupo de Facebook que los trabajadores oaxaqueños compartieron con KQED mostraron que los directivos de Mauritson compartieron información incorrecta sobre cómo debían ponerse en contacto los trabajadores con CIERTO para ser considerados para la temporada de 2022. Representantes de CIERTO confirmaron a KQED que esas instrucciones eran falsas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Estas instrucciones no reflejan nuestras prácticas con ninguno de los trabajadores a los que atendemos”, respondió por correo electrónico un representante de CIERTO. “Las instrucciones de Mauritson no fueron autorizadas ni difundidas por CIERTO”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuando los trabajadores se dieron cuenta de lo que estaba ocurriendo, alertaron al grupo NBJWJ. En febrero de 2022, los activistas \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">presentaron una demanda ante el ALRB en nombre de los seis trabajadores que asistieron a la reunión con Mauritson\u003c/a>. Inicialmente, seis de ellos hablaron, pero en su investigación, el ALRB descubrió que Mauritson había tomado represalias contra todo la cuadrilla de 21 personas al que pertenecían los seis trabajadores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El acuerdo de 328 mil 077 dólares que beneficiará a los 21 trabajadores representa lo que los trabajadores perdieron en ingresos por haber sido excluidos de la temporada de 2022, según los cálculos del ALRB. Una audiencia con un juez ya había sido programada para finales de este verano, pero el acuerdo entre la empresa y el ALRB concluye este proceso.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En una declaración enviada por correo electrónico a KQED, Mauritson Farms declaró que “cree firmemente que [no estaba] en ninguna violación de la Ley de Relaciones Laborales Agrícolas (ALRA). Este acuerdo es estrictamente una decisión empresarial que nos permite resolver este asunto sin necesidad de más litigios”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957507\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11957507 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS.jpg\" alt='Varias personas de distintas edades sostienen letreros con consignas. Algunos letreros dicen, \"La unión hace la fuerza\".' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los trabajadores agrícolas Antonio Flores (izquierda) y su hijo Mateo, Rosalba Gutiérrez (centro) y Valentina Sosa (derecha) se sientan en la conferencia de prensa organizada por el grupo de derechos laborales NBJWJ, donde se dio a conocer el acuerdo con Mauritson Farms en la plaza central de Healdsburg el lunes 24 de julio de 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Después de tantos abusos, creo que es justo que se respeten nuestros derechos y se nos respete por lo que somos”, dijo Miguel Ángel Bravo Silva, uno de los seis trabajadores que se reunieron con Mauritson. Durante el último año y medio, ha buscado cualquier trabajo en su comunidad rural de Oaxaca para mantener a su esposa y sus dos hijos y, al mismo tiempo, se ha mantenido en contacto con funcionarios del ALRB que investigaban la situación.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durante meses, el ALRB trabajó para localizar a los 21 trabajadores que no fueron recontratados. Una vez finalizada la temporada de 2021, muchos regresaron a pueblos remotos de Oaxaca, donde el acceso al internet y la cobertura de telefonía móvil son extremadamente limitados y, para algunos, inexistentes. Localizar a la gente fue uno de los retos, dijo la directora regional de ALRB, Jessica Arciniega. El otro era establecer confianza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“En muchos casos, resulta difícil mantener la comunicación con los trabajadores”, explica. “Pueden no estar familiarizados con nuestro proceso, con nosotros como agencia gubernamental y con lo que realmente hacemos. Así que puede que no siempre se sientan 100% preparados o cómodos de compartir toda esta información”.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Ana Salgado, antigua trabajadora agrícola y miembro de la junta de NBJWJ\"]‘Muchos [trabajadores H-2A] tienen miedo de perder la oportunidad que tienen \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">… \u003c/span> Pueden estar sufriendo muchos abusos, pero no quieren decir nada porque temen perder lo que consideran un privilegio.’[/pullquote]Los trabajadores no sólo temen sufrir más represalias del mismo empleador, sino que, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">como informó KQED el año pasado, muchos empleadores utilizan una red de reclutadores para impedir que los trabajadores que denuncian encuentren otro empleo en el futuro\u003c/a>. En ese mismo reportaje, KQED compartió la historia de Kevin y Samuel, dos ex empleados de Mauritson que estaban entre los seis que hicieron la primera denuncia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin y Samuel eran en realidad los alias de Sandoval Rivera y Bravo Silva, respectivamente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En aquel momento, ambos hombres tenían mucho miedo de las repercusiones que podría tener el compartir públicamente sus identidades durante la investigación del ALRB. A medida la investigación se hacía más larga, Sandoval Rivera sentía cada vez menos confianza en que hubiera una respuesta por parte de las autoridades, especialmente a medida que empeoraba la situación económica de su familia. “La necesidad te hace pensar muchas cosas”, dijo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sin embargo, él y Bravo Silva se alegran de haber esperado los resultados de la investigación y el acuerdo. Esto no sólo les beneficiará a ellos, dice Bravo Silva, “sino también a los trabajadores inmigrantes que ahora trabajan en esa empresa, para que se les respete más y no se sientan solos. Hay leyes que protegen a los trabajadores agrícolas”.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Celebrando una difícil victoria\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Con pancartas y carteles, muchos de ellos con la frase de Emiliano Zapata, como “La tierra es de quien la trabaja”, decenas de trabajadores agrícolas y activistas con NBJWJ llenaron parte de la plaza principal de Healdsburg para la conferencia de prensa que se realizó el pasado 24 de julio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ustedes representan a los trabajadores agrícolas que no pueden estar hoy aquí, pero cuya valentía nos ha dejado este legado, que luchando y encontrando aliados, los trabajadores podemos lograr muchas cosas”, dijo Ana Salgado, quien anteriormente era una trabajadora agrícola y ahora es una activista comunitaria y forma parte de la junta directiva de NBJWJ.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957508\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11957508 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally.jpg\" alt=\"Una mujer habla enfrente de una multitud. Muchos en la multitud sostienen letreros y pancartas con lemas de justicia labora.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ana Salgado (centro), ex trabajadora agrícola y miembro de la junta directiva de NBJWJ, habla en la rueda de prensa del lunes, 24 de julio de 2023, en la plaza central de Healdsburg. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A pocas calles de esa plaza se encuentra el centro comunitario donde Salgado conoció a varios de los hombres que entonces trabajaban para Mauritson. Recuerda las primeras conversaciones que mantuvo con los trabajadores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Miré a uno de ellos y vi la preocupación en su cara”, dijo, “tomé su mano y le dije ‘ya puedes abrirte, estás en un espacio seguro'”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tantos trabajadores que tienen la visa H-2A temen perder la oportunidad que tienen porque los empleadores les dicen que es un privilegio ser traídos de México con una visa”, explicó. “Pueden estar sufriendo muchos abusos, pero no quieren decir nada porque tienen miedo de perder lo que consideran un privilegio”.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>‘Leyes que no se cumplen’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>El programa de visados H-2A es el sucesor del Programa Bracero, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/31/634442195/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers\">que trajo trabajadores mexicanos a los campos agrícolas de Estados Unidos durante la década de 1940\u003c/a>. El actual sistema H-2A ahora trae a trabajadores de todo el mundo para trabajar en Estados Unidos y, como parte del programa, los empleadores deben proporcionar alojamiento, transporte y comidas, lo que da a las empresas un increíble poder sobre la vida personal de sus trabajadores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Y al igual que el Programa Bracero, \u003ca href=\"https://prismreports.org/2023/04/14/h2a-visa-wage-theft-exploitation/\">el sistema H-2A está plagado de robo de salarios, abuso físico y mental a los empleados, y represalias por parte de los empleadores hacia los trabajadores que denuncian\u003c/a> las condiciones laborales, esto según una investigación de 18 meses publicada en abril por las agencias de noticias Prism, Futuro Investigates y Latino USA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957509\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11957509 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally.jpg\" alt=\"Un hombre da un discurso ante una multitud. Muchos de los asistentes sostienen pancartas con consignas de protesta. El grupo se encuentra en un parque.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Davin Cárdenas, director del grupo de derechos laborales NBJWJ, habla en la rueda de prensa del 24 de agosto en la plaza central de Healdsburg. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tanto el gobierno federal como el de California han reforzado sus leyes laborales desde la década de 1940, así que ¿por qué persiste el abuso de los trabajadores H-2A?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Una de las razones es que las dependencias regulatorias necesitan más personal y recursos para hacer cumplir las normas laborales, dice Josephine Weinberg, abogada de California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA, por sus siglas en inglés), un bufete de abogados sin fines de lucro que representa a campesinos que han sufrido represalias y abusos en el lugar de trabajo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Contamos con las dependencias. Contamos con normas. Pero faltan los mecanismos para hacer cumplir las leyes y monitorear los campos. Así que lo que nos toca no es más que leyes simbólicas'”, dijo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aproximadamente 1 de cada 3 puestos sigue vacante en la Oficina del Comisionado Laboral de California, uno de los organismos encargados de investigar el robo de sueldos y las represalias en todas las industrias en el estado. La escasez de empleados en esta dependencia deja al personal actual sobrecargado de casos, lo que significa que quienes presentan una denuncia a menudo tienen que esperar años para obtener un resultado. Decenas de empleados de esta agencia mandaron una carta a legisladores estatales a principios de julio, argumentando que ellos están “fracasando en nuestra misión si no podemos contratar y retener al personal necesario”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En el ALRB, la directora regional Jessica Arciniega señala que su agencia tiene cinco oficinas repartidas por varias regiones agrícolas del estado, “pero California es un estado inmenso y hay muchos trabajadores agrícolas en todo el estado”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No tenemos oficinas en todas las regiones agrícolas”, dice, “así que hacemos lo que podemos en este enorme estado para cubrir dondequiera que estén los trabajadores”. Añade que el departamento colabora estrechamente con organizaciones comunitarias y sindicales, como NBJWJ, para conectar con más obreros.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero activistas laborales insisten en que hay que hacer más para aplicar mejor las normas laborales y mejorar el programa H-2A en su conjunto. Weinberg, de CRLA, añade que los reguladores deben vigilar más de cerca los campos agrícolas, con visitas aleatorias durante la temporada de cultivo. Y por otro lado, los empleadores deben facilitar que las agencias y los grupos laborales hablen con los campesinos sin restricciones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La forma en que se diseñó el programa H-2A, en el que las empresas tienen un control directo sobre el alojamiento, el transporte, la situación migratoria e incluso la alimentación de sus empleados, dificulta enormemente que los trabajadores puedan hablar libremente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No tienen acceso a un lugar donde sientan que pueden hablar confidencialmente o de forma anónima sobre lo que está pasando”, dijo Weinberg.[aside label='Más en español' tag='kqed-en-espanol']El 19 de julio, el gobernador Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956315/some-migrant-farmworkers-to-get-free-legal-help-with-immigration\">anunció un programa piloto de 4.5 millones de dólares para proporcionar servicios legales gratuitos de inmigración a los trabajadores agrícolas que están involucrados en investigaciones laborales estatales\u003c/a>. Esto incluiría servicios de revisión de casos, asesoramiento jurídico y representación por un abogado a los trabajadores en California que tienen un caso pendiente ya sea con el ALRB, la Oficina del Comisionado Laboral o Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El objetivo de este programa, según los funcionarios, es abordar uno de los temores que impiden a los empleados hablar, que es el miedo a perder su visado o a no volver a ser contratado, poniéndolos en contacto con expertos en inmigración que podrían ayudarles a encontrar formas de permanecer en este país. Y a principios de este año, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11941448/que-es-el-programa-de-accion-diferida-de-la-administracion-biden-para-trabajadores-indocumentados\">el gobierno del presidente Biden presentó una nueva y simplificada iniciativa de “acción diferida”\u003c/a> que permite a los trabajadores solicitar un permiso de trabajo y dos años de protección frente a la deportación si cooperan con una investigación sobre derechos laborales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero, por encima de todo, afirma Salgado de NBJWJ, lo que realmente ayuda a la gente a sentirse con la seguridad de hablar es saber que hay casos en los que el sistema funciona a favor de los trabajadores. “Sin duda, el resultado del caso Mauritson, reafirma la fe entre nosotros, pero también la credibilidad del trabajo que hacemos cuando salimos a hablar con los trabajadores”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Nota del editor: La versión original de este reportaje describió de manera errónea a Mauritson Farms como una bodega vinícola, en vez de una empresa de viñedos. Este reportaje ha sido actualizado para aclarar la relación entre Mauritson Farms, Inc. y Mauritson Wines.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Este artículo incluye información de las periodistas Farida Jhabvala Romero y Tyche Hendricks, de KQED. Además fue traducido por \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/mpena/\">María Peña\u003c/a> y editado por \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ccabreralomeli\">Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"El viñedo Mauritson Farms Inc. ubicado en California, pagará $328,077 a 21 de sus ex empleados, quienes trabajaron por varios años por este empleador con una visa H-2A y reportaron faltas a sus derechos laborales.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1694517592,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":43,"wordCount":3143},"headData":{"title":"Cómo un grupo de campesinos denunció a un viñedo por abusos laborales y ganó | KQED","description":"El viñedo Mauritson Farms Inc. ubicado en California, pagará $328,077 a 21 de sus ex empleados, quienes trabajaron por varios años por este empleador con una visa H-2A y reportaron faltas a sus derechos laborales.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Cómo un grupo de campesinos denunció a un viñedo por abusos laborales y ganó","datePublished":"2023-09-12T11:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-12T11:19:52.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"KQED en Español","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/kqedenespanol","audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-41c5-bcaf-aaef00f5a073/4479236b-6b94-45b8-aea6-b05301139438/audio.mp3","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11957505/campesinos-denunciaron-a-un-vinedo-por-abusos-laborales-y-ganaron","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956413/how-california-farmworkers-took-on-a-sonoma-winery-over-abuses-and-won\">\u003cem>Read in English\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mauritson Farms Inc. en el condado de Sonoma pagará 328 mil 077 dólares a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">21 de sus ex empleados\u003c/a> como parte de un \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23885712/settlement-agreement-june-2023.pdf\">acuerdo legal\u003c/a> con la Junta de Relaciones Laborales Agrícolas de California (ALRB, por sus siglas en inglés), el mayor acuerdo monetario que se ha visto en la oficina de Santa Rosa de esta dependencia. Funcionarios de la ALRB, junto con decenas de activistas laborales y trabajadores agrícolas, anunciaron el acuerdo en una conferencia de prensa el lunes 24 de julio de 2023 en Healdsburg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mauritson Farms Inc, que gestiona los viñedos, es una empresa independiente y distinta de Mauritson Wines. Ambas empresas son propiedad de la familia Mauritson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tras una investigación impulsada por las quejas de los trabajadores agrícolas, los funcionarios del ALRB determinaron que Mauritson Farms tomó represalias contra el equipo entero de antiguos empleados porque algunos de ellos se organizaron a finales de la temporada de cultivo de 2021 para denunciar las condiciones de trabajo inseguras en los viñedos de Mauritson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Debemos reconocer que se trata de una victoria iniciada por los trabajadores para defender no sólo sus derechos, sino también su dignidad”, dijo el activista Davin Cárdenas en una conferencia que se llevó a cabo el pasado 24 de julio. Cárdenas es el director de la organización North Bay Jobs With Justice (NBJWJ, por sus siglas en inglés), un grupo de derechos laborales que apoyó a los trabajadores en su denuncia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Se trata de un caso que establece un precedente para otros trabajadores de la región”, afirmó Cárdenas.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Después de tantos abusos, creo que es justo que se respeten nuestros derechos y se nos respete por lo que somos.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"Miguel Ángel Bravo Silva, uno de los seis trabajadores que denunciaron el trato recibido en Mauritson","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Los trabajadores implicados eran inmigrantes mexicanos, originarios del estado de Oaxaca, y se encontraban en los Estados Unidos con la visa H-2A, que permite a los trabajadores agrícolas permanecer en el país por períodos limitados.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED r\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">eportó por vez primera el año pasado\u003c/a> que ninguno de los trabajadores oaxaqueños que denunciaron los hechos en 2021 fueron recontratados para la temporada de cultivo de 2022, pese a las promesas que hizo la dirección de la empresa. En su denuncia presentada contra Mauritson el pasado mes de marzo, el ALRB \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23885711/alrb-complaint-march-2023.pdf\">determinó que el hecho de que Mauritson no volviera a contratar a estos trabajadores representa una violación de sus derechos laborales\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cuando recibí la noticia, agradecí a Dios que se ganó porque no fue nada fácil. Teníamos mucho miedo de hablar. Fue un proceso complicado, pero hay que quitarse ese miedo”, dijo Martín Sandoval Rivera, uno de los trabajadores que denunció las condiciones en Mauritson Farms. Actualmente se encuentra en Oaxaca, con varios trabajos para mantener a su familia.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nSandoval Rivera y sus compañeros dijeron que sufrieron acoso verbal por parte de su supervisor, que se les negó sombra mientras trabajaban en los campos cuando las temperaturas superaban los 90 grados Fahrenheit (equivalente a 32 centígrados) y que no recibieron sus períodos de descanso y almuerzo en algunas ocasiones. Todo esto viola las regulaciones laborales de California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seis de los trabajadores, incluido Sandoval Rivera, buscaron el apoyo del grupo de derechos laborales NBJWJ para mediar en la situación. NBJWJ organizó una reunión con los trabajadores y los directivos de la empresa en octubre de 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En esa reunión, el director del viñedo, Cameron Mauritson, prometió que las condiciones en los campos mejorarían y \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">aseguró a los trabajadores que volvería a contratarlos en 2022\u003c/a>, aliviando así la mayor preocupación de los trabajadores: que se les fuera a negar empleo en el futuro por haber pedido mejoras laborales. Después de esa plática, Mauritson Farms, que según los trabajadores previamente gestionaba el proceso de contratación a través de las redes sociales, contrató a CIERTO Global, una empresa multinacional que busca mano de obra en el extranjero para el sector agrícola de Estados Unidos.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11919450","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/07/FarmworkersIlloVignet-1020x659-1.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mauritson Farms pide a CIERTO Global que busque a trabajadores para la temporada de 2022, y por ende le cierra la puerta a los campesinos oaxaqueños. Según la denuncia del ALRB, para las empresas de cultivo de uva, CIERTO Global sólo recluta a trabajadores que viven en el estado mexicano de Baja California, no en Oaxaca.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Además, las capturas de pantalla de un grupo de Facebook que los trabajadores oaxaqueños compartieron con KQED mostraron que los directivos de Mauritson compartieron información incorrecta sobre cómo debían ponerse en contacto los trabajadores con CIERTO para ser considerados para la temporada de 2022. Representantes de CIERTO confirmaron a KQED que esas instrucciones eran falsas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Estas instrucciones no reflejan nuestras prácticas con ninguno de los trabajadores a los que atendemos”, respondió por correo electrónico un representante de CIERTO. “Las instrucciones de Mauritson no fueron autorizadas ni difundidas por CIERTO”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuando los trabajadores se dieron cuenta de lo que estaba ocurriendo, alertaron al grupo NBJWJ. En febrero de 2022, los activistas \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">presentaron una demanda ante el ALRB en nombre de los seis trabajadores que asistieron a la reunión con Mauritson\u003c/a>. Inicialmente, seis de ellos hablaron, pero en su investigación, el ALRB descubrió que Mauritson había tomado represalias contra todo la cuadrilla de 21 personas al que pertenecían los seis trabajadores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El acuerdo de 328 mil 077 dólares que beneficiará a los 21 trabajadores representa lo que los trabajadores perdieron en ingresos por haber sido excluidos de la temporada de 2022, según los cálculos del ALRB. Una audiencia con un juez ya había sido programada para finales de este verano, pero el acuerdo entre la empresa y el ALRB concluye este proceso.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En una declaración enviada por correo electrónico a KQED, Mauritson Farms declaró que “cree firmemente que [no estaba] en ninguna violación de la Ley de Relaciones Laborales Agrícolas (ALRA). Este acuerdo es estrictamente una decisión empresarial que nos permite resolver este asunto sin necesidad de más litigios”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957507\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11957507 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS.jpg\" alt='Varias personas de distintas edades sostienen letreros con consignas. Algunos letreros dicen, \"La unión hace la fuerza\".' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/LA-UNION-HACE-LA-FUERZA-BANNERS-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los trabajadores agrícolas Antonio Flores (izquierda) y su hijo Mateo, Rosalba Gutiérrez (centro) y Valentina Sosa (derecha) se sientan en la conferencia de prensa organizada por el grupo de derechos laborales NBJWJ, donde se dio a conocer el acuerdo con Mauritson Farms en la plaza central de Healdsburg el lunes 24 de julio de 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Después de tantos abusos, creo que es justo que se respeten nuestros derechos y se nos respete por lo que somos”, dijo Miguel Ángel Bravo Silva, uno de los seis trabajadores que se reunieron con Mauritson. Durante el último año y medio, ha buscado cualquier trabajo en su comunidad rural de Oaxaca para mantener a su esposa y sus dos hijos y, al mismo tiempo, se ha mantenido en contacto con funcionarios del ALRB que investigaban la situación.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durante meses, el ALRB trabajó para localizar a los 21 trabajadores que no fueron recontratados. Una vez finalizada la temporada de 2021, muchos regresaron a pueblos remotos de Oaxaca, donde el acceso al internet y la cobertura de telefonía móvil son extremadamente limitados y, para algunos, inexistentes. Localizar a la gente fue uno de los retos, dijo la directora regional de ALRB, Jessica Arciniega. El otro era establecer confianza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“En muchos casos, resulta difícil mantener la comunicación con los trabajadores”, explica. “Pueden no estar familiarizados con nuestro proceso, con nosotros como agencia gubernamental y con lo que realmente hacemos. Así que puede que no siempre se sientan 100% preparados o cómodos de compartir toda esta información”.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Muchos [trabajadores H-2A] tienen miedo de perder la oportunidad que tienen \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">… \u003c/span> Pueden estar sufriendo muchos abusos, pero no quieren decir nada porque temen perder lo que consideran un privilegio.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"Ana Salgado, antigua trabajadora agrícola y miembro de la junta de NBJWJ","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Los trabajadores no sólo temen sufrir más represalias del mismo empleador, sino que, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919450/trabajar-con-una-visa-h-2a-en-estados-unidos-represalias-derechos\">como informó KQED el año pasado, muchos empleadores utilizan una red de reclutadores para impedir que los trabajadores que denuncian encuentren otro empleo en el futuro\u003c/a>. En ese mismo reportaje, KQED compartió la historia de Kevin y Samuel, dos ex empleados de Mauritson que estaban entre los seis que hicieron la primera denuncia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin y Samuel eran en realidad los alias de Sandoval Rivera y Bravo Silva, respectivamente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En aquel momento, ambos hombres tenían mucho miedo de las repercusiones que podría tener el compartir públicamente sus identidades durante la investigación del ALRB. A medida la investigación se hacía más larga, Sandoval Rivera sentía cada vez menos confianza en que hubiera una respuesta por parte de las autoridades, especialmente a medida que empeoraba la situación económica de su familia. “La necesidad te hace pensar muchas cosas”, dijo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sin embargo, él y Bravo Silva se alegran de haber esperado los resultados de la investigación y el acuerdo. Esto no sólo les beneficiará a ellos, dice Bravo Silva, “sino también a los trabajadores inmigrantes que ahora trabajan en esa empresa, para que se les respete más y no se sientan solos. Hay leyes que protegen a los trabajadores agrícolas”.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Celebrando una difícil victoria\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Con pancartas y carteles, muchos de ellos con la frase de Emiliano Zapata, como “La tierra es de quien la trabaja”, decenas de trabajadores agrícolas y activistas con NBJWJ llenaron parte de la plaza principal de Healdsburg para la conferencia de prensa que se realizó el pasado 24 de julio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ustedes representan a los trabajadores agrícolas que no pueden estar hoy aquí, pero cuya valentía nos ha dejado este legado, que luchando y encontrando aliados, los trabajadores podemos lograr muchas cosas”, dijo Ana Salgado, quien anteriormente era una trabajadora agrícola y ahora es una activista comunitaria y forma parte de la junta directiva de NBJWJ.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957508\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11957508 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally.jpg\" alt=\"Una mujer habla enfrente de una multitud. Muchos en la multitud sostienen letreros y pancartas con lemas de justicia labora.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/healdsburg-plaza-farm-workers-rally-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ana Salgado (centro), ex trabajadora agrícola y miembro de la junta directiva de NBJWJ, habla en la rueda de prensa del lunes, 24 de julio de 2023, en la plaza central de Healdsburg. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A pocas calles de esa plaza se encuentra el centro comunitario donde Salgado conoció a varios de los hombres que entonces trabajaban para Mauritson. Recuerda las primeras conversaciones que mantuvo con los trabajadores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Miré a uno de ellos y vi la preocupación en su cara”, dijo, “tomé su mano y le dije ‘ya puedes abrirte, estás en un espacio seguro'”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tantos trabajadores que tienen la visa H-2A temen perder la oportunidad que tienen porque los empleadores les dicen que es un privilegio ser traídos de México con una visa”, explicó. “Pueden estar sufriendo muchos abusos, pero no quieren decir nada porque tienen miedo de perder lo que consideran un privilegio”.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>‘Leyes que no se cumplen’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>El programa de visados H-2A es el sucesor del Programa Bracero, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/31/634442195/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers\">que trajo trabajadores mexicanos a los campos agrícolas de Estados Unidos durante la década de 1940\u003c/a>. El actual sistema H-2A ahora trae a trabajadores de todo el mundo para trabajar en Estados Unidos y, como parte del programa, los empleadores deben proporcionar alojamiento, transporte y comidas, lo que da a las empresas un increíble poder sobre la vida personal de sus trabajadores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Y al igual que el Programa Bracero, \u003ca href=\"https://prismreports.org/2023/04/14/h2a-visa-wage-theft-exploitation/\">el sistema H-2A está plagado de robo de salarios, abuso físico y mental a los empleados, y represalias por parte de los empleadores hacia los trabajadores que denuncian\u003c/a> las condiciones laborales, esto según una investigación de 18 meses publicada en abril por las agencias de noticias Prism, Futuro Investigates y Latino USA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957509\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11957509 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally.jpg\" alt=\"Un hombre da un discurso ante una multitud. Muchos de los asistentes sostienen pancartas con consignas de protesta. El grupo se encuentra en un parque.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/davin-cardenas-with-migrant-workers-at-rally-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Davin Cárdenas, director del grupo de derechos laborales NBJWJ, habla en la rueda de prensa del 24 de agosto en la plaza central de Healdsburg. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tanto el gobierno federal como el de California han reforzado sus leyes laborales desde la década de 1940, así que ¿por qué persiste el abuso de los trabajadores H-2A?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Una de las razones es que las dependencias regulatorias necesitan más personal y recursos para hacer cumplir las normas laborales, dice Josephine Weinberg, abogada de California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA, por sus siglas en inglés), un bufete de abogados sin fines de lucro que representa a campesinos que han sufrido represalias y abusos en el lugar de trabajo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Contamos con las dependencias. Contamos con normas. Pero faltan los mecanismos para hacer cumplir las leyes y monitorear los campos. Así que lo que nos toca no es más que leyes simbólicas'”, dijo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aproximadamente 1 de cada 3 puestos sigue vacante en la Oficina del Comisionado Laboral de California, uno de los organismos encargados de investigar el robo de sueldos y las represalias en todas las industrias en el estado. La escasez de empleados en esta dependencia deja al personal actual sobrecargado de casos, lo que significa que quienes presentan una denuncia a menudo tienen que esperar años para obtener un resultado. Decenas de empleados de esta agencia mandaron una carta a legisladores estatales a principios de julio, argumentando que ellos están “fracasando en nuestra misión si no podemos contratar y retener al personal necesario”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>En el ALRB, la directora regional Jessica Arciniega señala que su agencia tiene cinco oficinas repartidas por varias regiones agrícolas del estado, “pero California es un estado inmenso y hay muchos trabajadores agrícolas en todo el estado”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No tenemos oficinas en todas las regiones agrícolas”, dice, “así que hacemos lo que podemos en este enorme estado para cubrir dondequiera que estén los trabajadores”. Añade que el departamento colabora estrechamente con organizaciones comunitarias y sindicales, como NBJWJ, para conectar con más obreros.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero activistas laborales insisten en que hay que hacer más para aplicar mejor las normas laborales y mejorar el programa H-2A en su conjunto. Weinberg, de CRLA, añade que los reguladores deben vigilar más de cerca los campos agrícolas, con visitas aleatorias durante la temporada de cultivo. Y por otro lado, los empleadores deben facilitar que las agencias y los grupos laborales hablen con los campesinos sin restricciones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>La forma en que se diseñó el programa H-2A, en el que las empresas tienen un control directo sobre el alojamiento, el transporte, la situación migratoria e incluso la alimentación de sus empleados, dificulta enormemente que los trabajadores puedan hablar libremente.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No tienen acceso a un lugar donde sientan que pueden hablar confidencialmente o de forma anónima sobre lo que está pasando”, dijo Weinberg.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Más en español ","tag":"kqed-en-espanol"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>El 19 de julio, el gobernador Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956315/some-migrant-farmworkers-to-get-free-legal-help-with-immigration\">anunció un programa piloto de 4.5 millones de dólares para proporcionar servicios legales gratuitos de inmigración a los trabajadores agrícolas que están involucrados en investigaciones laborales estatales\u003c/a>. Esto incluiría servicios de revisión de casos, asesoramiento jurídico y representación por un abogado a los trabajadores en California que tienen un caso pendiente ya sea con el ALRB, la Oficina del Comisionado Laboral o Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El objetivo de este programa, según los funcionarios, es abordar uno de los temores que impiden a los empleados hablar, que es el miedo a perder su visado o a no volver a ser contratado, poniéndolos en contacto con expertos en inmigración que podrían ayudarles a encontrar formas de permanecer en este país. Y a principios de este año, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11941448/que-es-el-programa-de-accion-diferida-de-la-administracion-biden-para-trabajadores-indocumentados\">el gobierno del presidente Biden presentó una nueva y simplificada iniciativa de “acción diferida”\u003c/a> que permite a los trabajadores solicitar un permiso de trabajo y dos años de protección frente a la deportación si cooperan con una investigación sobre derechos laborales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero, por encima de todo, afirma Salgado de NBJWJ, lo que realmente ayuda a la gente a sentirse con la seguridad de hablar es saber que hay casos en los que el sistema funciona a favor de los trabajadores. “Sin duda, el resultado del caso Mauritson, reafirma la fe entre nosotros, pero también la credibilidad del trabajo que hacemos cuando salimos a hablar con los trabajadores”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Nota del editor: La versión original de este reportaje describió de manera errónea a Mauritson Farms como una bodega vinícola, en vez de una empresa de viñedos. Este reportaje ha sido actualizado para aclarar la relación entre Mauritson Farms, Inc. y Mauritson Wines.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Este artículo incluye información de las periodistas Farida Jhabvala Romero y Tyche Hendricks, de KQED. Además fue traducido por \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/mpena/\">María Peña\u003c/a> y editado por \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ccabreralomeli\">Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11957505/campesinos-denunciaron-a-un-vinedo-por-abusos-laborales-y-ganaron","authors":["11708"],"categories":["news_31795","news_1169","news_28523"],"tags":["news_31272","news_32371","news_28586","news_32372","news_18269","news_4338","news_32889","news_20202","news_27775","news_28444","news_19904","news_29865","news_31268","news_31269","news_31275","news_4981","news_244","news_31320","news_18208","news_31276"],"featImg":"news_11957506","label":"source_news_11957505"},"news_11960459":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11960459","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11960459","score":null,"sort":[1694426423000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-santa-clara-county-is-fighting-wage-theft","title":"How Santa Clara County is Fighting Wage Theft","publishDate":1694426423,"format":"audio","headTitle":"How Santa Clara County is Fighting Wage Theft | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California faces a big problem in labor law enforcement: when businesses are found to have committed wage theft, many \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">still \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">don’t pay workers what they’re owed. KQED’s Farida Jhabvala Romero tells us how Santa Clara County is implementing a local solution to this statewide issue. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">[iframe frameborder=”0″ height=”200″ scrolling=”no” src=”https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6137013080&light=true” width=”100%”/iframe\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. You would think – hope, even – that if you were a victim of wage theft, that there’s a process in place to help you get what you’re owed. And there is a state agency in California set up for that. It’s just the process doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>There’s only 13 people in the whole state dedicated to helping thousands of these low income workers try to recover that money that the state found their due.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Many businesses that have committed wage theft are often able to avoid settling that debt in California. That’s why officials in Santa Clara County have implemented a local solution to this problem by pushing some local businesses to pay up or lose their right to operate today. How one Bay Area County is helping put money back in the hands of workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>So I went to downtown Gilroy and it was a couple of months ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Farida Jhabvala Romero is a labor correspondent for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>It was really hot and super sunny, and I met a group of people who were doing outreach work, partnering with the County of Santa Clara to educate food businesses in that area about their responsibilities as employers. And one of them was Melissa Sanchez. I have a.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>For sure for you here to give to the owner, if you don’t mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>She would go into businesses and they would, like start chatting. They’re just trying to tell people what’s going on and also let them know about a county program called the Food Permit Enforcement Program and delivering pamphlets about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Sanchez: \u003c/strong>And your name again? I’m sorry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ricardo Rivas: \u003c/strong>My name is Ricardo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Sanchez: \u003c/strong>Oh, hi, Ricardo. I’m Melissa. Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>One of the people she met was Ricardo Rivas. He’s the manager of a restaurant called Tempo Kitchen and Bar. And Ricardo ended up saying he was very interested in attending the the free training and that he wanted to make sure that the restaurant was treating workers fairly. And then he got information about the food permit wage theft enforcement program as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ricardo Rivas: \u003c/strong>There’s so many different things involved with between state and county and federal laws, especially as far as labor goes. So being able to stay compliant with it, ensure that we are treating our workers here fairly and accordance to the law is definitely a major importance for us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So Melissa and the people that you were out there following were really out there trying to reach out to business owners about this program in Santa Clara County. Before we dig into it, what is the problem that this program is trying to solve?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>The county started this program because they’re putting some resources down to try to stem labor violations like wage theft, which is when workers are not paid what they’re owed under the law, like meal and rest breaks and overtime, minimum wage. There’s a state agency that investigates those cases When workers complain, it’s called the labor commissioner’s office. There is a list of cases where the Labor commissioner’s office has found that the worker is owed wages by an employer. But many times workers end up not getting any of that money paid. Statewide, the Labor commissioner’s office told us that there are more than 6500 of these cases of people with unpaid judgments that remain open, totaling more than $85 million. And this process, Ericka, can sometimes take years. The state has a very tiny department. It’s called the Judgment Enforcement Unit. They focused on helping low income workers get money back. They’re super understaffed. They said there were 22 positions statewide and only 13 were filled. That means there’s only 13 people in the whole state dedicated to helping thousands of low income workers try to recover that money. People who don’t want to pay will often move money around or put it in somebody else’s name. Close the business, declare bankruptcy. You know, it can be a really long, you know, process. So a lot of people end up just, you know, never seeing that money ever again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>This has been a problem that a lot of people have been talking about in Santa Clara County. Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Workers rights advocates in the county have been pushing for years to get more local city and county governments involved. The way they see it, as often, there aren’t enough consequences when businesses are found to owe workers wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ruth Silver Taube: \u003c/strong>I believe it’s a business model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Ruth Silver Taube is an attorney who coordinates the Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ruth Silver Taube: \u003c/strong>There’s a subset of businesses that just don’t want to pay these judgments because they want to make more money for themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>So these worker advocates, like they’ve been pushing for more local consequences for businesses who have these unpaid judgments with the labor commissioner’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ruth Silver Taube: \u003c/strong>We do need more enforcement that that to me, is a huge problem because even if you win, it doesn’t matter. The worker needs that money. We need that money in the worker’s pockets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>What role exactly is the county playing in this and what are they doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>What the county does is they regularly get a list of all these businesses in the states with unpaid judgments. Then they figure out which ones are food businesses with permits in the county. They target the person named in the in the actual judgment. Then they’ll send the business a letter. And if the business doesn’t respond in 45 days, the county can take their permit to operate away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessie Yu: \u003c/strong>The county focuses on food from its because we see a nexus between vulnerable worker populations and a large number of labor violations in the food retail industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Jesse Yu heads the county’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement. The county is in charge of issuing these food permits. So the way they think about it is, well, the businesses need to comply with all the laws, and that includes making sure they don’t have any of these unpaid judgments, that they don’t owe money to the state or workers in the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessie Yu; \u003c/strong>That’s exactly kind of where we see we fit in is just really complementing and supporting the federal and state process. Because even though a judgment is issued, sometimes the business doesn’t pay. And so we’re hoping to leverage our food permits to ensure that payment happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>It’s definitely a very different message when the county is threatening to revoke your permit to operate, you know, you would have to close your business if you don’t have this permit. And so it is creating more local consequences for for these businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>As I understand it, this program has actually been pretty successful, it seems like, at getting wages back into the hands of workers. I believe that the number is $125,000. Is that right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Yeah. They’ve said they’ve recovered $125,000 so far. It’s definitely, you know, nothing to sniff out, especially for the workers who were able to actually recover, you know, thousands of dollars on wages they were owed. I did get in touch with workers who got money after the food permit program got involved in their cases, but none of them wanted to speak publicly. You know, they did not want to be quoted because they didn’t want to be associated with a wage dispute. And, you know, sometimes their former employers in the same community had one worker tell me that their employer goes to her church. Businesses that paid these judgments after the food permit enforcement program sent them letters. You know, we’re in touch with them. They also didn’t want to be quoted or identified in the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Zooming out, Farida, I’m curious how unique a program like this is. The people who follow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Labor enforcement nationally that I talked to said this was a pretty unique program in the sense that the county is actively trying to identify and reach out to businesses doing investigations of their own, sometimes into a business, and also having this big outreach component. So, you know, it sounds like Santa Clara is trying something new. I heard words like innovative, you know, like pretty unique. That’s how people describe the county’s work on this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Are there other cities that have tried to do something like this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Outside of Santa Clara, there’s other types of efforts I’ve seen. Like recently, San Diego County launched a new program called the Workplace Justice Fund. And so what the county is trying to do there is identifying workers who have these unpaid judgments in San Diego County. The county will front them up to $3,000 to help them stabilize financially. And at the same time, the county has its own collections agency, you know, with professional people who do this for a living, you know, And so they’ll take over the workers case, you know, and try to help them recover funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, what would it take to get something like this going on a larger scale for you to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>I think what would it would take is just counties elsewhere deciding that they they want to try this out. You know, our feeling that this is a big enough problem for them that they that they want to focus on it in this way. You know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Or a big enough priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Exactly. Like the situation of of having workers who’ve gone through this system that is supposed to, you know, help them and also help enforce labor laws. It has a bunch of impacts not just for the workers but for the state as well, because these workers are often really low income. They end up relying on food stamps and other programs that are supported with our tax dollars. Then the state also misses out on payroll taxes. And so it affects people in different ways. And then for the businesses, it’s unfair when a business is following the rules and then, you know, has to spend more money on their workforce following the law. And then they’re competing with businesses that are not doing that. And so it’s cheaper for them. So there’s also an issue of fairness. And leveling the playing field for for business owners is how the county and workers rights advocates and and the folks that are doing this outreach to businesses talk about this problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Why do you think this is happening now and in this place in particular, Santa Clara County?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>This has been a years long push by people who want to see change on wage theft in this state. It’s the most populous county in the Bay Area. There has been a concerted push there, but also in other parts of the state to get local governments to use their authority to, you know, intervene in this problem, help the state with enforcement of labor laws and see some real change, you know, for for workers who who have been victims of wage theft. And then it also sends a really strong message to businesses in the county and employers that somebody is watching and that there are local consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Farida, thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Farida Jhabvala Romero, a labor correspondent with KQED. This 30-minute conversation with Farida was cut down and edited by producer Maria Esquinca. Alan Montecillo is our senior editor. He scored this episode and added all the tape. And if you haven’t already, please consider leaving The Bay a review on Apple Podcasts. For one, I really like reading them and also it helps other people find our show. The Bay is a production of member supported KQED. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, see you next time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California faces a big problem in labor law enforcement: when businesses are found to have committed wage theft, many still don’t pay workers what they’re owed.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1700689119,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":5,"wordCount":2334},"headData":{"title":"How Santa Clara County is Fighting Wage Theft | KQED","description":"California faces a big problem in labor law enforcement: when businesses are found to have committed wage theft, many still don’t pay workers what they’re owed.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"How Santa Clara County is Fighting Wage Theft","datePublished":"2023-09-11T10:00:23.000Z","dateModified":"2023-11-22T21:38:39.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"The Bay","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/thebay","audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC6137013080.mp3?updated=1694201161","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11960459/how-santa-clara-county-is-fighting-wage-theft","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California faces a big problem in labor law enforcement: when businesses are found to have committed wage theft, many \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">still \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">don’t pay workers what they’re owed. KQED’s Farida Jhabvala Romero tells us how Santa Clara County is implementing a local solution to this statewide issue. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">[iframe frameborder=”0″ height=”200″ scrolling=”no” src=”https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6137013080&light=true” width=”100%”/iframe\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. You would think – hope, even – that if you were a victim of wage theft, that there’s a process in place to help you get what you’re owed. And there is a state agency in California set up for that. It’s just the process doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>There’s only 13 people in the whole state dedicated to helping thousands of these low income workers try to recover that money that the state found their due.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Many businesses that have committed wage theft are often able to avoid settling that debt in California. That’s why officials in Santa Clara County have implemented a local solution to this problem by pushing some local businesses to pay up or lose their right to operate today. How one Bay Area County is helping put money back in the hands of workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>So I went to downtown Gilroy and it was a couple of months ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Farida Jhabvala Romero is a labor correspondent for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>It was really hot and super sunny, and I met a group of people who were doing outreach work, partnering with the County of Santa Clara to educate food businesses in that area about their responsibilities as employers. And one of them was Melissa Sanchez. I have a.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>For sure for you here to give to the owner, if you don’t mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>She would go into businesses and they would, like start chatting. They’re just trying to tell people what’s going on and also let them know about a county program called the Food Permit Enforcement Program and delivering pamphlets about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Sanchez: \u003c/strong>And your name again? I’m sorry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ricardo Rivas: \u003c/strong>My name is Ricardo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Sanchez: \u003c/strong>Oh, hi, Ricardo. I’m Melissa. Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>One of the people she met was Ricardo Rivas. He’s the manager of a restaurant called Tempo Kitchen and Bar. And Ricardo ended up saying he was very interested in attending the the free training and that he wanted to make sure that the restaurant was treating workers fairly. And then he got information about the food permit wage theft enforcement program as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ricardo Rivas: \u003c/strong>There’s so many different things involved with between state and county and federal laws, especially as far as labor goes. So being able to stay compliant with it, ensure that we are treating our workers here fairly and accordance to the law is definitely a major importance for us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So Melissa and the people that you were out there following were really out there trying to reach out to business owners about this program in Santa Clara County. Before we dig into it, what is the problem that this program is trying to solve?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>The county started this program because they’re putting some resources down to try to stem labor violations like wage theft, which is when workers are not paid what they’re owed under the law, like meal and rest breaks and overtime, minimum wage. There’s a state agency that investigates those cases When workers complain, it’s called the labor commissioner’s office. There is a list of cases where the Labor commissioner’s office has found that the worker is owed wages by an employer. But many times workers end up not getting any of that money paid. Statewide, the Labor commissioner’s office told us that there are more than 6500 of these cases of people with unpaid judgments that remain open, totaling more than $85 million. And this process, Ericka, can sometimes take years. The state has a very tiny department. It’s called the Judgment Enforcement Unit. They focused on helping low income workers get money back. They’re super understaffed. They said there were 22 positions statewide and only 13 were filled. That means there’s only 13 people in the whole state dedicated to helping thousands of low income workers try to recover that money. People who don’t want to pay will often move money around or put it in somebody else’s name. Close the business, declare bankruptcy. You know, it can be a really long, you know, process. So a lot of people end up just, you know, never seeing that money ever again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>This has been a problem that a lot of people have been talking about in Santa Clara County. Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Workers rights advocates in the county have been pushing for years to get more local city and county governments involved. The way they see it, as often, there aren’t enough consequences when businesses are found to owe workers wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ruth Silver Taube: \u003c/strong>I believe it’s a business model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Ruth Silver Taube is an attorney who coordinates the Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ruth Silver Taube: \u003c/strong>There’s a subset of businesses that just don’t want to pay these judgments because they want to make more money for themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>So these worker advocates, like they’ve been pushing for more local consequences for businesses who have these unpaid judgments with the labor commissioner’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ruth Silver Taube: \u003c/strong>We do need more enforcement that that to me, is a huge problem because even if you win, it doesn’t matter. The worker needs that money. We need that money in the worker’s pockets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>What role exactly is the county playing in this and what are they doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>What the county does is they regularly get a list of all these businesses in the states with unpaid judgments. Then they figure out which ones are food businesses with permits in the county. They target the person named in the in the actual judgment. Then they’ll send the business a letter. And if the business doesn’t respond in 45 days, the county can take their permit to operate away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessie Yu: \u003c/strong>The county focuses on food from its because we see a nexus between vulnerable worker populations and a large number of labor violations in the food retail industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Jesse Yu heads the county’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement. The county is in charge of issuing these food permits. So the way they think about it is, well, the businesses need to comply with all the laws, and that includes making sure they don’t have any of these unpaid judgments, that they don’t owe money to the state or workers in the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessie Yu; \u003c/strong>That’s exactly kind of where we see we fit in is just really complementing and supporting the federal and state process. Because even though a judgment is issued, sometimes the business doesn’t pay. And so we’re hoping to leverage our food permits to ensure that payment happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>It’s definitely a very different message when the county is threatening to revoke your permit to operate, you know, you would have to close your business if you don’t have this permit. And so it is creating more local consequences for for these businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>As I understand it, this program has actually been pretty successful, it seems like, at getting wages back into the hands of workers. I believe that the number is $125,000. Is that right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Yeah. They’ve said they’ve recovered $125,000 so far. It’s definitely, you know, nothing to sniff out, especially for the workers who were able to actually recover, you know, thousands of dollars on wages they were owed. I did get in touch with workers who got money after the food permit program got involved in their cases, but none of them wanted to speak publicly. You know, they did not want to be quoted because they didn’t want to be associated with a wage dispute. And, you know, sometimes their former employers in the same community had one worker tell me that their employer goes to her church. Businesses that paid these judgments after the food permit enforcement program sent them letters. You know, we’re in touch with them. They also didn’t want to be quoted or identified in the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Zooming out, Farida, I’m curious how unique a program like this is. The people who follow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Labor enforcement nationally that I talked to said this was a pretty unique program in the sense that the county is actively trying to identify and reach out to businesses doing investigations of their own, sometimes into a business, and also having this big outreach component. So, you know, it sounds like Santa Clara is trying something new. I heard words like innovative, you know, like pretty unique. That’s how people describe the county’s work on this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Are there other cities that have tried to do something like this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Outside of Santa Clara, there’s other types of efforts I’ve seen. Like recently, San Diego County launched a new program called the Workplace Justice Fund. And so what the county is trying to do there is identifying workers who have these unpaid judgments in San Diego County. The county will front them up to $3,000 to help them stabilize financially. And at the same time, the county has its own collections agency, you know, with professional people who do this for a living, you know, And so they’ll take over the workers case, you know, and try to help them recover funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, what would it take to get something like this going on a larger scale for you to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>I think what would it would take is just counties elsewhere deciding that they they want to try this out. You know, our feeling that this is a big enough problem for them that they that they want to focus on it in this way. You know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Or a big enough priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Exactly. Like the situation of of having workers who’ve gone through this system that is supposed to, you know, help them and also help enforce labor laws. It has a bunch of impacts not just for the workers but for the state as well, because these workers are often really low income. They end up relying on food stamps and other programs that are supported with our tax dollars. Then the state also misses out on payroll taxes. And so it affects people in different ways. And then for the businesses, it’s unfair when a business is following the rules and then, you know, has to spend more money on their workforce following the law. And then they’re competing with businesses that are not doing that. And so it’s cheaper for them. So there’s also an issue of fairness. And leveling the playing field for for business owners is how the county and workers rights advocates and and the folks that are doing this outreach to businesses talk about this problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Why do you think this is happening now and in this place in particular, Santa Clara County?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>This has been a years long push by people who want to see change on wage theft in this state. It’s the most populous county in the Bay Area. There has been a concerted push there, but also in other parts of the state to get local governments to use their authority to, you know, intervene in this problem, help the state with enforcement of labor laws and see some real change, you know, for for workers who who have been victims of wage theft. And then it also sends a really strong message to businesses in the county and employers that somebody is watching and that there are local consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Farida, thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Farida Jhabvala Romero: \u003c/strong>Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Farida Jhabvala Romero, a labor correspondent with KQED. This 30-minute conversation with Farida was cut down and edited by producer Maria Esquinca. Alan Montecillo is our senior editor. He scored this episode and added all the tape. And if you haven’t already, please consider leaving The Bay a review on Apple Podcasts. For one, I really like reading them and also it helps other people find our show. The Bay is a production of member supported KQED. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, see you next time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11960459/how-santa-clara-county-is-fighting-wage-theft","authors":["8654","8659","11802","11649"],"programs":["news_28779"],"categories":["news_8","news_33520"],"tags":["news_19904","news_22598","news_18208"],"featImg":"news_11958148","label":"source_news_11960459"},"news_11959915":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11959915","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11959915","score":null,"sort":[1693611416000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"amid-rise-in-labor-activism-in-california-on-the-job-violation-and-employer-retaliation-claims-increase","title":"Amid Rise in Labor Activism in California, on-the-Job Violation and Employer Retaliation Claims Increase","publishDate":1693611416,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Amid Rise in Labor Activism in California, on-the-Job Violation and Employer Retaliation Claims Increase | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>In June 2020, as California was deep in the throes of the COVID pandemic, Lizzet Aguilar raised the alarm about working conditions at the Los Angeles McDonald’s where she worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joined at times by her coworkers, Aguilar filed three safety complaints with the state and the county alleging that workers were forced to work without masks and that managers failed to notify them when they were exposed to the virus. The workers staged strikes over the summer outside the Boyle Heights restaurant, demanding improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That September, Aguilar and three coworkers were fired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A citation from the state Labor Commissioner’s Office against the business followed, along with two years of appeals. This past February the case finally came to a close: \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Ntc-of-Findings-Order-McDonalds-2.16.23.pdf\">A state hearing officer ruled (PDF)\u003c/a> the workers were owed back wages and should be rehired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case, whose resolution the Labor Commissioner \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2023/2023-30.html\">announced\u003c/a> in April, was one of the state’s rare public crackdowns against retaliation — the act of employers firing workers, changing their schedules, cutting their hours or otherwise disciplining them for making legitimate complaints about working conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Retaliation is banned by dozens of California labor laws, but workers’ rights advocates say it’s a common barrier to lower-income laborers organizing or demanding more from their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now labor activists are pushing for the state to more swiftly resolve retaliation claims, and for the Legislature to pass a measure making it easier for workers to win them. It’s a move business interests oppose, warning it could subject employers to unjustified claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid an upswing in labor activism, claims of retaliation are rising across the state, CalMatters has found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California workers last year filed an average of 706 claims of workplace retaliation per month with the state’s Labor Commissioner’s Office, which enforces many labor laws including those banning wage theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a 50% increase over the pre-pandemic monthly average in 2019, according to a CalMatters analysis of data obtained through a public records request. In the first three months of this year, workers averaged more claims per month than the monthly average last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers’ advocates and the state say the increase is driven in part by workers’ increasing awareness of their own labor protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why this retaliation happens is workers standing up for themselves, standing up for their rights, and owners and companies putting those workers down, deterring the other workers by this increased fear,” said Jules Yun, who organizes restaurant and retail workers for the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, an advocacy center in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who do complain of retaliation may wait years before the state investigates or hears their claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of retaliation claims awaiting investigation grew more than five-fold from 2018 through 2021 — to 3,378 cases, according to public reports. By April 2023 the backlog had grown to 4,878 claims, the Labor Commissioner’s Office told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And claims are hard to prove. The Labor Commissioner’s Office in 2021 issued 237 decisions on retaliation claims, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/RCILegReport2021.pdf\">most of which had been filed in prior years (PDF)\u003c/a>. Officials dismissed 228 of those claims for a lack of evidence, deciding in the worker’s favor in just nine cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A rare win on workplace retaliation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After being fired from her McDonald’s job, Aguilar’s debt piled up and her household income dwindled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her 8-year-old son relied more on her husband as the primary breadwinner, as inflation rose during the pandemic. Aguilar later got a job at another McDonald’s. It was a longer commute, and the cost of gas ate into their budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought, ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me,’” she said. “There are needs in the home. I have to pay for gas. I have to pay bills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was on her way to work at the newer job this year when she learned of the Labor Commissioner hearing officer’s decision in her favor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The officer ruled that the owner of the Boyle Heights franchise location, R&B Sanchez, Inc., along with its owners Beverly Sanchez and the late Robert Sanchez, and their nephew who was the human resources manager, had illegally retaliated against the four workers for making a legally protected workplace-safety complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state ordered the defendants and the late Sanchez’ estate to pay the four workers back wages and the restaurant’s new owner, DRS Hospitality, LLC, to rehire them. Aguilar, the office ruled, was owed more than $14,700 for the lost hours, plus back pay and $10,000 in penalties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I almost screamed throughout the McDonald’s, ‘We won, we won!’” she said. “It was a tremendous joy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The money will help Aguilar pay down debts she said she accumulated over months of having lost work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An attorney representing the Sanchezes and the company did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Reached by phone, DRS Hospitality CEO Dean Sanchez — a relative of the former owners whom the state also listed in the case as an R&B Sanchez company representative — declined to comment, saying he was only “an employee at the time all that happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rising claims\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The labor groups’ advocacy around retaliation targets a central dynamic in the employee-employer relationship: the fear of losing a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That power imbalance is a persistent bar to enforcing workplace protections, labor groups say, despite California having some of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/08/wage-theft-california-car-wash\">the strictest labor laws\u003c/a> in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14624243/embed\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px;\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Retaliation is the thing hanging over so many people in the workplace that prevents us from actually accessing the rights that we have on paper,” said Nayantara Mehta, director of the National Employment Law Center’s Worker Power Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The center surveyed 1,000 California workers of various incomes and found 38% said they had experienced a workplace violation, but only 10% had reported it to a state agency. Many workers said fear of retaliation would prevent them from reporting a violation, according to \u003ca href=\"https://s27147.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/NELP-Report-CA-Retaliation-Funds-2022.pdf\">the center’s report (PDF)\u003c/a> released last November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandra and Veronica Barreno felt that fear after complaining this March that their employer had underpaid them for overtime work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sisters, immigrants from Guatemala, said they had previously been involved in workplace activism with the help of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, demanding rest breaks and sick time at the same restaurant. Veronica, who in December 2021 filed for a restraining order against a coworker, said in her petition that she had repeatedly reported workplace sexual harassment to management. The next month, managers agreed to investigate her complaints and change both workers’ schedules, according to a letter that appears to be from management, which the workers alliance shared with CalMatters. (The alliance also shared a copy of an apparent no-contact agreement signed by Veronica and the co-worker, after which court records show that she withdrew her petition for the permanent restraining order.)[aside postID=news_11955920,news_11940316,news_11913643]This spring the sisters filed a lawsuit against Hong Kong Banjum, the restaurant that employed them as cooks and dishwashers, alleging wage theft. In a court filing, CEO Min Kyung Jeong denied the accusations, saying the sisters were paid for all hours worked and given rest breaks. Jeong and her attorney did not respond to several CalMatters emails and phone calls requesting comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day after the suit was filed, Sandra told CalMatters, the manager was waiting for Sandra with two other workers when she arrived at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For part of the conversation, several organizers with the worker center accompanied Sandra. After the manager, Sandra and the organizers talked about the lawsuit, the organizer said, they left. Sandra recalled that she felt frightened by the conversation and wanted to go home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sandra said her employer told her that if she left work early that day, she wouldn’t have a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She called the Koreatown worker center organizers back crying, Yun said, and repeated to them what she said the manager had just told her. The organizers returned. “We were comforting Sandra and we were encouraging her to stay a couple more hours,” Yun said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandra said that, fearful of losing her job, she worked all day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11959934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2023/09/01/amid-rise-in-labor-activism-in-california-on-the-job-violation-and-employer-retaliation-claims-increase/v-sandra-retaliation-ab-23/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11959934\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11959934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23.jpg\" alt=\"a Latino woman stands in front of a tree\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandra Barreno at Harvard Park, Los Angeles, on July 13, 2023. \u003ccite>(Ashley Balderrama/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Veronica has since left the restaurant, and Sandra said she has thought about it too. But she added that she hopes the lawsuit can improve things, so she wants to see it through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We endure so much because we fear that any other job we find would be the same,” Veronica said. “My sister and I don’t have an education. We don’t speak English. And we’re afraid that going somewhere else we’ll be intimidated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veronica also told CalMatters that she had previously had some hours cut and tips taken after making complaints about workplace conditions at Hong Kong Banjum restaurant. Yun said Veronica reported both to worker center organizers; internal documents from the worker center, shared with CalMatters, indicate that Veronica told organizers she wasn’t being given tips on certain shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the lawsuit does not include allegations of retaliation — the Barrenos’ lawyer said they would be hard to prove. Nor have the sisters filed a retaliation complaint with the state — worker center organizers knew of a significant backlog, Yun said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A chilling effect?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In California, the Labor Commissioner handles cases in which workers claim employer retaliation for certain legally protected activities, such as lodging complaints about unpaid wages or unsafe working conditions, taking sick leave, or reporting wage discrimination based on race or gender.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other state and federal laws ban retaliation for reporting harassment or discrimination, or for organizing a union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, the National Employment Law Center and a group of other worker centers have sponsored a bill they hope will make it easier for workers to win state retaliation claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The measure, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB497\">Senate Bill 497\u003c/a>, would direct the Labor Commissioner’s Office and California courts to assume employers are illegally retaliating if they fire, demote or cut the hours of a worker who in the past 90 days has made a wage claim or a complaint about unequal pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The employer would have the burden of proving that the disciplinary action is justified and not retaliatory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under current state law, workers must prove their employer’s actions were retaliatory to win their case. Then the state could fine the business or force the employer to pay back-pay for an illegal firing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill would direct some of the fines to the wronged worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yun said the bill could encourage more workers to organize themselves to make workplace demands together: “It won’t eliminate all the fear, of course, but it is one more step.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11959935\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2023/09/01/amid-rise-in-labor-activism-in-california-on-the-job-violation-and-employer-retaliation-claims-increase/v-sandra-retaliation-ab-19/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11959935\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11959935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19.jpg\" alt=\"two women sit together in a park, looking into the distance\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sisters Sandra and Veronica Barreno, at Harvard Park in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Ashley Balderrama/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Business groups including the California Chamber of Commerce oppose the measure, arguing it would invite frivolous retaliation claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a July hearing before the Assembly labor committee, Courtney Jensen, a lobbyist working for the Chamber, said California courts already consider the timing of a disciplinary action. If a worker was fired a day after making a complaint, most judges would agree that’s retaliatory, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our concern is when you start to get out 60, 90 days that’s when judges tend to look at other circumstances,” such as whether anything happened in between that time or whether the worker had a pattern of other behavior, Jensen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said businesses are worried the Legislature is setting a precedent of making it harder to discipline employees for longer periods of time. Last year, for example, Newsom signed a bill making it easier for farm workers to unionize that included a provision allowing employees to more easily claim retaliation if they are disciplined during the duration of a union campaign — a period of time that could be months or even years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These concerns killed a similar measure the Legislature passed in 2002. That bill was an effort to encourage workers in the underground economy to come forward about labor violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Gov. Gray Davis vetoed that bill at the urging of employer groups and his administration’s Department of Industrial Relations, which houses the Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents argued then that workers could stave off justified firings by filing labor complaints ahead of time. Davis wrote in his veto letter that the measure would have “a chilling effect on a supervisor’s willingness to legitimately discipline problem employees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current retaliation bill has passed the Senate and has passed easily through committees in the Assembly, where it awaits a floor vote. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office refused to comment on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>State system backlogs\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The same understaffing plaguing the Labor Commissioner’s system for hearing wage theft claims also has grounded its Retaliation Complaints Investigation unit to a near halt, workers’ attorneys said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022 nearly a third of the unit’s 60 positions were vacant. The Legislature has since added funding to grow the unit to 94 positions in the next year, but the office’s employees have complained of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2023/07/california-cost-of-living-3/#wm-story-2\">slow hiring and persistent vacancies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives for the Labor Commissioner’s Office said their increased outreach to workers about labor rights may be in part driving an influx of retaliation claims. The office said it’s “developed different approaches to help process the increase in case filings,” including engaging with employers early to warn against retaliatory actions and holding settlement conferences to resolve claims faster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a worker files a retaliation claim, the Labor Commissioner’s Office decides whether to investigate it or dismiss the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike with wage theft claims, the office is not required to hold a hearing for every retaliation claim — although it could — so the state doesn’t track how long it takes to hear workers’ cases, a spokesperson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state told attorneys this year it is hearing retaliation cases from five years ago, said Amy Yu, an attorney at the Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles, which represents workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clients often give up when cases drag on. Yu filed a claim on behalf of a worker in early 2021 and heard nothing from the Labor Commissioner’s Office until the end of 2022, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The client already vanished,” she said. “The case is no longer viable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like in other labor cases, resolutions are slow even when workers win their cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aguilar has not yet gotten her old job back. She was asked to re-apply, she said, and is waiting to be called to the store for orientation. But she remains determined to speak up for lower-income immigrant workers, like herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hope that by raising my voice things will change, not just for workers in fast food, but also other industries,” she said, “because it’s not just us who go through this. There are thousands who go through similar situations.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"More workers are filing claims alleging employers are retaliating against them for engaging in legally protected activities, such as seeking overtime pay or reporting wage theft or discrimination.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1693946987,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":true,"iframeSrcs":["https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14624243/embed"],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":69,"wordCount":2595},"headData":{"title":"Amid Rise in Labor Activism in California, on-the-Job Violation and Employer Retaliation Claims Increase | KQED","description":"More workers are filing claims alleging employers are retaliating against them for engaging in legally protected activities, such as seeking overtime pay or reporting wage theft or discrimination.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Amid Rise in Labor Activism in California, on-the-Job Violation and Employer Retaliation Claims Increase","datePublished":"2023-09-01T23:36:56.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-05T20:49:47.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"CALmatters","sourceUrl":"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2023/09/workplace-retaliation-california-labor/","nprByline":"\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/jeanne-kuang/\">Jeanna Kuang\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/alejandra-reyesvelarde/\">Alejandra Reyes-Velarde\u003c/a>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11959915/amid-rise-in-labor-activism-in-california-on-the-job-violation-and-employer-retaliation-claims-increase","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In June 2020, as California was deep in the throes of the COVID pandemic, Lizzet Aguilar raised the alarm about working conditions at the Los Angeles McDonald’s where she worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joined at times by her coworkers, Aguilar filed three safety complaints with the state and the county alleging that workers were forced to work without masks and that managers failed to notify them when they were exposed to the virus. The workers staged strikes over the summer outside the Boyle Heights restaurant, demanding improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That September, Aguilar and three coworkers were fired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A citation from the state Labor Commissioner’s Office against the business followed, along with two years of appeals. This past February the case finally came to a close: \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Ntc-of-Findings-Order-McDonalds-2.16.23.pdf\">A state hearing officer ruled (PDF)\u003c/a> the workers were owed back wages and should be rehired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case, whose resolution the Labor Commissioner \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2023/2023-30.html\">announced\u003c/a> in April, was one of the state’s rare public crackdowns against retaliation — the act of employers firing workers, changing their schedules, cutting their hours or otherwise disciplining them for making legitimate complaints about working conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Retaliation is banned by dozens of California labor laws, but workers’ rights advocates say it’s a common barrier to lower-income laborers organizing or demanding more from their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now labor activists are pushing for the state to more swiftly resolve retaliation claims, and for the Legislature to pass a measure making it easier for workers to win them. It’s a move business interests oppose, warning it could subject employers to unjustified claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid an upswing in labor activism, claims of retaliation are rising across the state, CalMatters has found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California workers last year filed an average of 706 claims of workplace retaliation per month with the state’s Labor Commissioner’s Office, which enforces many labor laws including those banning wage theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a 50% increase over the pre-pandemic monthly average in 2019, according to a CalMatters analysis of data obtained through a public records request. In the first three months of this year, workers averaged more claims per month than the monthly average last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers’ advocates and the state say the increase is driven in part by workers’ increasing awareness of their own labor protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why this retaliation happens is workers standing up for themselves, standing up for their rights, and owners and companies putting those workers down, deterring the other workers by this increased fear,” said Jules Yun, who organizes restaurant and retail workers for the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, an advocacy center in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who do complain of retaliation may wait years before the state investigates or hears their claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of retaliation claims awaiting investigation grew more than five-fold from 2018 through 2021 — to 3,378 cases, according to public reports. By April 2023 the backlog had grown to 4,878 claims, the Labor Commissioner’s Office told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And claims are hard to prove. The Labor Commissioner’s Office in 2021 issued 237 decisions on retaliation claims, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/RCILegReport2021.pdf\">most of which had been filed in prior years (PDF)\u003c/a>. Officials dismissed 228 of those claims for a lack of evidence, deciding in the worker’s favor in just nine cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A rare win on workplace retaliation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After being fired from her McDonald’s job, Aguilar’s debt piled up and her household income dwindled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her 8-year-old son relied more on her husband as the primary breadwinner, as inflation rose during the pandemic. Aguilar later got a job at another McDonald’s. It was a longer commute, and the cost of gas ate into their budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought, ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me,’” she said. “There are needs in the home. I have to pay for gas. I have to pay bills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was on her way to work at the newer job this year when she learned of the Labor Commissioner hearing officer’s decision in her favor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The officer ruled that the owner of the Boyle Heights franchise location, R&B Sanchez, Inc., along with its owners Beverly Sanchez and the late Robert Sanchez, and their nephew who was the human resources manager, had illegally retaliated against the four workers for making a legally protected workplace-safety complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state ordered the defendants and the late Sanchez’ estate to pay the four workers back wages and the restaurant’s new owner, DRS Hospitality, LLC, to rehire them. Aguilar, the office ruled, was owed more than $14,700 for the lost hours, plus back pay and $10,000 in penalties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I almost screamed throughout the McDonald’s, ‘We won, we won!’” she said. “It was a tremendous joy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The money will help Aguilar pay down debts she said she accumulated over months of having lost work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An attorney representing the Sanchezes and the company did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Reached by phone, DRS Hospitality CEO Dean Sanchez — a relative of the former owners whom the state also listed in the case as an R&B Sanchez company representative — declined to comment, saying he was only “an employee at the time all that happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rising claims\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The labor groups’ advocacy around retaliation targets a central dynamic in the employee-employer relationship: the fear of losing a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That power imbalance is a persistent bar to enforcing workplace protections, labor groups say, despite California having some of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/08/wage-theft-california-car-wash\">the strictest labor laws\u003c/a> in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14624243/embed\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px;\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Retaliation is the thing hanging over so many people in the workplace that prevents us from actually accessing the rights that we have on paper,” said Nayantara Mehta, director of the National Employment Law Center’s Worker Power Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The center surveyed 1,000 California workers of various incomes and found 38% said they had experienced a workplace violation, but only 10% had reported it to a state agency. Many workers said fear of retaliation would prevent them from reporting a violation, according to \u003ca href=\"https://s27147.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/NELP-Report-CA-Retaliation-Funds-2022.pdf\">the center’s report (PDF)\u003c/a> released last November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandra and Veronica Barreno felt that fear after complaining this March that their employer had underpaid them for overtime work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sisters, immigrants from Guatemala, said they had previously been involved in workplace activism with the help of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, demanding rest breaks and sick time at the same restaurant. Veronica, who in December 2021 filed for a restraining order against a coworker, said in her petition that she had repeatedly reported workplace sexual harassment to management. The next month, managers agreed to investigate her complaints and change both workers’ schedules, according to a letter that appears to be from management, which the workers alliance shared with CalMatters. (The alliance also shared a copy of an apparent no-contact agreement signed by Veronica and the co-worker, after which court records show that she withdrew her petition for the permanent restraining order.)\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11955920,news_11940316,news_11913643","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This spring the sisters filed a lawsuit against Hong Kong Banjum, the restaurant that employed them as cooks and dishwashers, alleging wage theft. In a court filing, CEO Min Kyung Jeong denied the accusations, saying the sisters were paid for all hours worked and given rest breaks. Jeong and her attorney did not respond to several CalMatters emails and phone calls requesting comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day after the suit was filed, Sandra told CalMatters, the manager was waiting for Sandra with two other workers when she arrived at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For part of the conversation, several organizers with the worker center accompanied Sandra. After the manager, Sandra and the organizers talked about the lawsuit, the organizer said, they left. Sandra recalled that she felt frightened by the conversation and wanted to go home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sandra said her employer told her that if she left work early that day, she wouldn’t have a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She called the Koreatown worker center organizers back crying, Yun said, and repeated to them what she said the manager had just told her. The organizers returned. “We were comforting Sandra and we were encouraging her to stay a couple more hours,” Yun said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandra said that, fearful of losing her job, she worked all day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11959934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2023/09/01/amid-rise-in-labor-activism-in-california-on-the-job-violation-and-employer-retaliation-claims-increase/v-sandra-retaliation-ab-23/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11959934\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11959934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23.jpg\" alt=\"a Latino woman stands in front of a tree\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-23-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandra Barreno at Harvard Park, Los Angeles, on July 13, 2023. \u003ccite>(Ashley Balderrama/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Veronica has since left the restaurant, and Sandra said she has thought about it too. But she added that she hopes the lawsuit can improve things, so she wants to see it through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We endure so much because we fear that any other job we find would be the same,” Veronica said. “My sister and I don’t have an education. We don’t speak English. And we’re afraid that going somewhere else we’ll be intimidated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veronica also told CalMatters that she had previously had some hours cut and tips taken after making complaints about workplace conditions at Hong Kong Banjum restaurant. Yun said Veronica reported both to worker center organizers; internal documents from the worker center, shared with CalMatters, indicate that Veronica told organizers she wasn’t being given tips on certain shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the lawsuit does not include allegations of retaliation — the Barrenos’ lawyer said they would be hard to prove. Nor have the sisters filed a retaliation complaint with the state — worker center organizers knew of a significant backlog, Yun said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A chilling effect?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In California, the Labor Commissioner handles cases in which workers claim employer retaliation for certain legally protected activities, such as lodging complaints about unpaid wages or unsafe working conditions, taking sick leave, or reporting wage discrimination based on race or gender.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other state and federal laws ban retaliation for reporting harassment or discrimination, or for organizing a union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, the National Employment Law Center and a group of other worker centers have sponsored a bill they hope will make it easier for workers to win state retaliation claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The measure, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB497\">Senate Bill 497\u003c/a>, would direct the Labor Commissioner’s Office and California courts to assume employers are illegally retaliating if they fire, demote or cut the hours of a worker who in the past 90 days has made a wage claim or a complaint about unequal pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The employer would have the burden of proving that the disciplinary action is justified and not retaliatory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under current state law, workers must prove their employer’s actions were retaliatory to win their case. Then the state could fine the business or force the employer to pay back-pay for an illegal firing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill would direct some of the fines to the wronged worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yun said the bill could encourage more workers to organize themselves to make workplace demands together: “It won’t eliminate all the fear, of course, but it is one more step.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11959935\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2023/09/01/amid-rise-in-labor-activism-in-california-on-the-job-violation-and-employer-retaliation-claims-increase/v-sandra-retaliation-ab-19/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11959935\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11959935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19.jpg\" alt=\"two women sit together in a park, looking into the distance\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/V.-Sandra-Retaliation-AB-19-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sisters Sandra and Veronica Barreno, at Harvard Park in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Ashley Balderrama/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Business groups including the California Chamber of Commerce oppose the measure, arguing it would invite frivolous retaliation claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a July hearing before the Assembly labor committee, Courtney Jensen, a lobbyist working for the Chamber, said California courts already consider the timing of a disciplinary action. If a worker was fired a day after making a complaint, most judges would agree that’s retaliatory, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our concern is when you start to get out 60, 90 days that’s when judges tend to look at other circumstances,” such as whether anything happened in between that time or whether the worker had a pattern of other behavior, Jensen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said businesses are worried the Legislature is setting a precedent of making it harder to discipline employees for longer periods of time. Last year, for example, Newsom signed a bill making it easier for farm workers to unionize that included a provision allowing employees to more easily claim retaliation if they are disciplined during the duration of a union campaign — a period of time that could be months or even years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These concerns killed a similar measure the Legislature passed in 2002. That bill was an effort to encourage workers in the underground economy to come forward about labor violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Gov. Gray Davis vetoed that bill at the urging of employer groups and his administration’s Department of Industrial Relations, which houses the Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents argued then that workers could stave off justified firings by filing labor complaints ahead of time. Davis wrote in his veto letter that the measure would have “a chilling effect on a supervisor’s willingness to legitimately discipline problem employees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current retaliation bill has passed the Senate and has passed easily through committees in the Assembly, where it awaits a floor vote. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office refused to comment on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>State system backlogs\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The same understaffing plaguing the Labor Commissioner’s system for hearing wage theft claims also has grounded its Retaliation Complaints Investigation unit to a near halt, workers’ attorneys said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022 nearly a third of the unit’s 60 positions were vacant. The Legislature has since added funding to grow the unit to 94 positions in the next year, but the office’s employees have complained of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2023/07/california-cost-of-living-3/#wm-story-2\">slow hiring and persistent vacancies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives for the Labor Commissioner’s Office said their increased outreach to workers about labor rights may be in part driving an influx of retaliation claims. The office said it’s “developed different approaches to help process the increase in case filings,” including engaging with employers early to warn against retaliatory actions and holding settlement conferences to resolve claims faster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a worker files a retaliation claim, the Labor Commissioner’s Office decides whether to investigate it or dismiss the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike with wage theft claims, the office is not required to hold a hearing for every retaliation claim — although it could — so the state doesn’t track how long it takes to hear workers’ cases, a spokesperson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state told attorneys this year it is hearing retaliation cases from five years ago, said Amy Yu, an attorney at the Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles, which represents workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clients often give up when cases drag on. Yu filed a claim on behalf of a worker in early 2021 and heard nothing from the Labor Commissioner’s Office until the end of 2022, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The client already vanished,” she said. “The case is no longer viable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like in other labor cases, resolutions are slow even when workers win their cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aguilar has not yet gotten her old job back. She was asked to re-apply, she said, and is waiting to be called to the store for orientation. But she remains determined to speak up for lower-income immigrant workers, like herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hope that by raising my voice things will change, not just for workers in fast food, but also other industries,” she said, “because it’s not just us who go through this. There are thousands who go through similar situations.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11959915/amid-rise-in-labor-activism-in-california-on-the-job-violation-and-employer-retaliation-claims-increase","authors":["byline_news_11959915"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_30731","news_32378","news_18208"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11959936","label":"source_news_11959915"},"news_11958124":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11958124","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11958124","score":null,"sort":[1692051511000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits","title":"Santa Clara County Pushes Food Businesses to Pay Worker Wages — or Lose Permits","publishDate":1692051511,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Santa Clara County Pushes Food Businesses to Pay Worker Wages — or Lose Permits | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>The most populous county in the Bay Area is helping state authorities address a perennial problem in labor law enforcement: businesses that were found to have cheated workers out of wages, but then fail to settle that debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, thousands of people with lower-income who have won wage claims in front of state regulators over the last decade may never recover their money, even after courts have ordered their employers to pay up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unscrupulous debtors often skirt those obligations by hiding assets or closing operations and reorganizing as a new business — leaving vulnerable families without restitution — while facing little to no consequences, said workers’ rights advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a unique Santa Clara County approach targeting food retailers is leading to money back in workers’ pockets, in an industry regulators rate as one of the top for workplace violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county leverages the food permits it issues to push local restaurants and other food-serving businesses with unpaid \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Judgment-Enforcement-Unit.html#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20Judgment%3F,the%20worker%20recover%20the%20wages.\">labor violation judgments\u003c/a> to comply — or risk losing authorization to operate in Santa Clara. The permits of about 1,800 local employers are contingent on following all applicable workplace laws, such as minimum wage and overtime pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has enormous potential,” said Ruth Silver Taube, an attorney who coordinates the Santa Clara County \u003ca href=\"https://wagetheftcoalition.org/\">Wage Theft Coalition\u003c/a>. “It disincentivizes wage theft because business owners want to keep their restaurants open.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Just a piece of paper’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In California, workers lose \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year/\">roughly $2 billion\u003c/a> annually from employers who aren’t paying minimum wage, and that’s just one form of wage theft, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Many of those victimized, often lower-income immigrants and women, will never file an official complaint with the state agency tasked with investigating wage theft because they fear retaliation.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ruth Silver Taube, attorney and coordinator, Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition\"]‘It has enormous potential. It disincentivizes wage theft because business owners want to keep their restaurants open.’[/pullquote]Workers already struggling to make ends meet report they have to rely more on tax-supported social programs to survive the lost wages. The state also \u003ca href=\"https://www.labor.ucla.edu/publication/hollow-victories-the-crisis-in-collecting-unpaid-wages-for-californias-workers/\">loses revenue\u003c/a> in payroll taxes, and businesses that do follow the law are at a competitive disadvantage because of the higher costs, according to the UCLA Labor Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mirna Arana, a Guatemalan immigrant who now lives in San Leandro, in Alameda County, with her two young children, said she hasn’t received any of the $183,000 the California Labor Commissioner’s Office awarded her, including for unpaid regular wages and overtime. She often worked 12-hour shifts cleaning homes and office buildings, she said, but her former employer, Rene Herrera at Maid No. 1 Services, only paid her about $5 an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958150\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958150\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman plays with two children indoors beside a window.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mirna Arana hasn’t received any of the $183,000 the California Labor Commissioner’s Office awarded her for unpaid wages and overtime. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her case was referred about two years ago to a small unit at the state agency that focuses on helping workers \u003ca href=\"https://wagetheftisacrime.com/Legal-Tools.html#sheriff\">collect\u003c/a> unpaid wages. But, by then, her employer had already filed for bankruptcy, she said. Efforts to enforce the judgment in her favor through bank levies were also unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been such a stressful, difficult time,” said Arana in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experience of feeling exploited at her job inspired the 36-year-old to start her own house cleaning business, and she vowed to treat any employees she might hire fairly. But while she enlists a number of clients, Arana must still rely on government subsidized food assistance to get by, and she worries frequently about how to pay for her apartment’s rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years after she first filed her wage claim, she said the judgment she won is “just a piece of paper.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like I didn’t achieve anything. That all my effort with this claim, to try to make sure that other workers didn’t go through what I did, wasn’t worth it,” Arana said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Secretary of State records show Maid No. 1 Services was terminated in May 2018. Herrera did not respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Santa Clara County’s solution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Santa Clara County, the \u003ca href=\"https://desj.sccgov.org/food-permit-enforcement-program\">Food Permit Enforcement Program\u003c/a> has helped collect more than $110,000 for workers since 2019, according to county officials. The program, which began as a pilot in a few cities, was halted during the pandemic before it was relaunched countywide last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED contacted three workers who recovered lost wages through the program, but they declined to comment, as they did not want to be publicly associated with a wage dispute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement regularly combs state records to identify food permit holders with unpaid judgments. If a business owner does not respond to a series of letters within 45 days, their permit could be revoked, though nobody has lost one yet, said Jessie Yu, who directs the office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958148\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958148\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt='A hand holds a flier with the words \"wage theft\" written in bold on the top.' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniella Balvidiva with the Fair Workplace Collaborative holds a flier on wage theft on April 28, 2023 in Gilroy. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The county focuses on food permits because we see a nexus between vulnerable worker populations and a large number of labor violations in the food retail industry,” said Yu. “We want to make sure that our citizens are taken care of and that if they are working for eight hours, they get paid for eight hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first-of-its kind program works across jurisdictions to help ensure retail food vendors in the county comply not only with local laws, but state and federal ones as well, said Jenn Round, a labor standards enforcement expert at the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Santa Clara food permitting program is unique and innovative nationwide,” said Round, who works with local, state and federal agencies across the U.S. to more effectively protect the rights of low-wage workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t heard of any other county in the country that is doing anything like that … to take on the challenge of enforcing a judgment that’s been issued by a different (state) agency,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as the Labor Commissioner’s Office struggles with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955920/california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis\">staffing crisis\u003c/a> that dozens of employees at the agency say cripples its mission of ensuring a fair day’s pay in every workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the approximately 30,000 \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/howtofilewageclaim.htm\">wage claims\u003c/a> workers file annually are settled with employers or dismissed. But those that aren’t, end up in court judgments, often after a years-long process due to major \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906889/california-workers-face-years-long-waits-for-justice-in-wage-theft-cases-state-data-shows\">delays\u003c/a> at the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even after they win, many workers are then left to their own devices to \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/PubsTemp/DLSE%20Brochures/Collect%20Your%20Award%20from%20the%20Caifornia%20Labor/Brochure-JE_WEB-EN.pdf\">try to collect (PDF)\u003c/a> on those judgments. A fraction of those orders — involving people who labor in low-wage industries such as agriculture, construction and restaurants — are referred to the Labor Commissioner’s Judgment Enforcement Unit for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These specific employers sometimes that come through our office will do everything they can to avoid these payments,” said James Yang, a senior deputy who works at the unit. “They start moving property, they start trying to sell or transfer the business, getting rid of real estate… It’s not easy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yang says the unit is “very effective” at clawing back money in cases they can focus on, using collections tools that range from liens and bank levies to complex investigations to try to chase and seize assets to collect lost wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because the unit has fewer than two dozen staff positions statewide, and only 13 of those are filled, it lacks the capacity to intensively investigate the thousands of cases it handles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958146\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958146\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two people talk inside of a restaurant. One person is holding a clipboard.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Armando Ricardez, with the nonprofit Prosperity Lab, asks Lorena Gaeta, owner of Gaeta’s Taqueria, to sign a list acknowledging that she has received a certificate of completion for a training on workplace laws. The outreach effort informs small business owners about the county’s food permit enforcement program. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Working Partnerships USA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even though Santa Clara’s food permit enforcement initiative only targets a small subset of unpaid judgments, it still sends a powerful message to employers, said Yang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one county, one specific industry, we are talking about here. But it’s been very helpful,” he said. “And it’s garnered very positive attention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other counties in California have expressed interest in setting up programs like Santa Clara’s to hold more wage thieves accountable, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several \u003ca href=\"https://www.labor.ucla.edu/publication/hollow-victories-the-crisis-in-collecting-unpaid-wages-for-californias-workers/\">studies\u003c/a> point to a high proportion of wage theft victims who are unable to collect on the judgments in their favor. The California Legislative Analyst’s Office \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4165\">found\u003c/a> that fewer than half of workers who received an award for unpaid wages recovered them from their employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last decade, more than 6,500 unpaid judgments, totaling nearly $85 million, remained open after being referred to the enforcement unit, according to a spokeswoman with the Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees the Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The total amount owed to workers is likely much higher, as those figures do not include cases that were not referred to the unit and whose outcome is not known to the agency. Also omitted are judgments stemming from investigations by the agency’s Bureau of Field Enforcement, which often issues citations totaling millions of dollars for widespread violations impacting dozens of workers at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wage theft ‘not acceptable’ in Santa Clara County\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The numerous unpaid judgments show it’s “absolutely critical” for city and county governments to do more to disincentivize wage theft, said Silver Taube, the attorney working with Santa Clara County’s Wage Theft Coalition, and a supervising attorney at Alexander Community Law Center at Santa Clara University Law School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe it’s a business model. I think they know there’s no consequences, and they just don’t pay,” said Silver Taube, who has pushed for greater consequences for businesses with labor violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958147\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958147\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two people talk inside of a restaurant. One person is holding a clipboard.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melissa Sanchez speaks with Tempo Kitchen & Bar’s general manager Ricardo Rivas on April 28, 2023 in Gilroy. Sanchez is part of an outreach team that informs businesses about the county’s food permit enforcement program and workplace laws. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Wage Theft Coalition advocated for Santa Clara County to establish the food permit enforcement program, and they helped convince cities, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.milpitas.gov/FAQ.aspx?QID=365\">Milpitas\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://law.scu.edu/kgaclc/newsletter-summer-2016-eliminating-wage-theft/\">San José\u003c/a>, that it’s to their benefit, too, to deny business permits or contracts to employers with unpaid judgments at the Labor Commissioner’s Office.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jessie Yu, Director of Santa Clara County Office of Labor Standards Enforcement\"]‘The county focuses on food permits because we see a nexus between vulnerable worker populations and a large number of labor violations in the food retail industry.’[/pullquote]“Wage theft is on everyone’s radar now. And I do believe that there’s a consensus that it’s not acceptable in this county,” said Silver Taube. “It’s just that we have a lot of work to do, still.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to partner with community groups that inform workers of their rights and businesses of their responsibilities, said Yu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny afternoon in downtown Gilroy, a group with green buttons that read “Community Outreach” visited food businesses, distributing brochures on the permit enforcement program and inviting them to a free training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958145\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958145\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Three people walk across a street as one of them pulls a wagon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniella Baldivia pulls a cart full of flyers as other members of the Fair Workplace Collaborative follow in downtown Gilroy. The group informed business owners at restaurants, grocery stores and cafes about the county’s food permit enforcement program. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Working Partnerships USA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure you’re up to speed on all the laws,” Melissa Sanchez, with the Fair Workplace Collaborative, told general manager Ricardo Rivas at Tempo Kitchen & Bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas said he appreciated the outreach effort, and would sign up for the training session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are so many different things involved between state and county and federal laws, especially as far as labor goes,” Rivas said. “So being able to stay compliant with it, ensure that we are treating our workers here fairly, and in accordance with the law, is definitely a major importance for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"'Wage theft is on everyone's radar now, and I do believe that there's a consensus that it's not acceptable in this county,' said a workers' rights advocate. \r\n","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1692113706,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":43,"wordCount":2148},"headData":{"title":"Santa Clara County Pushes Food Businesses to Pay Worker Wages — or Lose Permits | KQED","description":"'Wage theft is on everyone's radar now, and I do believe that there's a consensus that it's not acceptable in this county,' said a workers' rights advocate. \r\n","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Santa Clara County Pushes Food Businesses to Pay Worker Wages — or Lose Permits","datePublished":"2023-08-14T22:18:31.000Z","dateModified":"2023-08-15T15:35:06.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"Food","sourceUrl":"/food/","audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/8e6c99f5-cf00-49ab-b886-b05e00feafa6/audio.mp3","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The most populous county in the Bay Area is helping state authorities address a perennial problem in labor law enforcement: businesses that were found to have cheated workers out of wages, but then fail to settle that debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, thousands of people with lower-income who have won wage claims in front of state regulators over the last decade may never recover their money, even after courts have ordered their employers to pay up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unscrupulous debtors often skirt those obligations by hiding assets or closing operations and reorganizing as a new business — leaving vulnerable families without restitution — while facing little to no consequences, said workers’ rights advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a unique Santa Clara County approach targeting food retailers is leading to money back in workers’ pockets, in an industry regulators rate as one of the top for workplace violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county leverages the food permits it issues to push local restaurants and other food-serving businesses with unpaid \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Judgment-Enforcement-Unit.html#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20Judgment%3F,the%20worker%20recover%20the%20wages.\">labor violation judgments\u003c/a> to comply — or risk losing authorization to operate in Santa Clara. The permits of about 1,800 local employers are contingent on following all applicable workplace laws, such as minimum wage and overtime pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has enormous potential,” said Ruth Silver Taube, an attorney who coordinates the Santa Clara County \u003ca href=\"https://wagetheftcoalition.org/\">Wage Theft Coalition\u003c/a>. “It disincentivizes wage theft because business owners want to keep their restaurants open.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Just a piece of paper’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In California, workers lose \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year/\">roughly $2 billion\u003c/a> annually from employers who aren’t paying minimum wage, and that’s just one form of wage theft, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Many of those victimized, often lower-income immigrants and women, will never file an official complaint with the state agency tasked with investigating wage theft because they fear retaliation.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘It has enormous potential. It disincentivizes wage theft because business owners want to keep their restaurants open.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Ruth Silver Taube, attorney and coordinator, Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Workers already struggling to make ends meet report they have to rely more on tax-supported social programs to survive the lost wages. The state also \u003ca href=\"https://www.labor.ucla.edu/publication/hollow-victories-the-crisis-in-collecting-unpaid-wages-for-californias-workers/\">loses revenue\u003c/a> in payroll taxes, and businesses that do follow the law are at a competitive disadvantage because of the higher costs, according to the UCLA Labor Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mirna Arana, a Guatemalan immigrant who now lives in San Leandro, in Alameda County, with her two young children, said she hasn’t received any of the $183,000 the California Labor Commissioner’s Office awarded her, including for unpaid regular wages and overtime. She often worked 12-hour shifts cleaning homes and office buildings, she said, but her former employer, Rene Herrera at Maid No. 1 Services, only paid her about $5 an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958150\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958150\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman plays with two children indoors beside a window.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-06-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mirna Arana hasn’t received any of the $183,000 the California Labor Commissioner’s Office awarded her for unpaid wages and overtime. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her case was referred about two years ago to a small unit at the state agency that focuses on helping workers \u003ca href=\"https://wagetheftisacrime.com/Legal-Tools.html#sheriff\">collect\u003c/a> unpaid wages. But, by then, her employer had already filed for bankruptcy, she said. Efforts to enforce the judgment in her favor through bank levies were also unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been such a stressful, difficult time,” said Arana in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experience of feeling exploited at her job inspired the 36-year-old to start her own house cleaning business, and she vowed to treat any employees she might hire fairly. But while she enlists a number of clients, Arana must still rely on government subsidized food assistance to get by, and she worries frequently about how to pay for her apartment’s rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years after she first filed her wage claim, she said the judgment she won is “just a piece of paper.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like I didn’t achieve anything. That all my effort with this claim, to try to make sure that other workers didn’t go through what I did, wasn’t worth it,” Arana said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Secretary of State records show Maid No. 1 Services was terminated in May 2018. Herrera did not respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Santa Clara County’s solution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Santa Clara County, the \u003ca href=\"https://desj.sccgov.org/food-permit-enforcement-program\">Food Permit Enforcement Program\u003c/a> has helped collect more than $110,000 for workers since 2019, according to county officials. The program, which began as a pilot in a few cities, was halted during the pandemic before it was relaunched countywide last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED contacted three workers who recovered lost wages through the program, but they declined to comment, as they did not want to be publicly associated with a wage dispute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement regularly combs state records to identify food permit holders with unpaid judgments. If a business owner does not respond to a series of letters within 45 days, their permit could be revoked, though nobody has lost one yet, said Jessie Yu, who directs the office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958148\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958148\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt='A hand holds a flier with the words \"wage theft\" written in bold on the top.' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-04-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniella Balvidiva with the Fair Workplace Collaborative holds a flier on wage theft on April 28, 2023 in Gilroy. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The county focuses on food permits because we see a nexus between vulnerable worker populations and a large number of labor violations in the food retail industry,” said Yu. “We want to make sure that our citizens are taken care of and that if they are working for eight hours, they get paid for eight hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first-of-its kind program works across jurisdictions to help ensure retail food vendors in the county comply not only with local laws, but state and federal ones as well, said Jenn Round, a labor standards enforcement expert at the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Santa Clara food permitting program is unique and innovative nationwide,” said Round, who works with local, state and federal agencies across the U.S. to more effectively protect the rights of low-wage workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t heard of any other county in the country that is doing anything like that … to take on the challenge of enforcing a judgment that’s been issued by a different (state) agency,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as the Labor Commissioner’s Office struggles with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955920/california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis\">staffing crisis\u003c/a> that dozens of employees at the agency say cripples its mission of ensuring a fair day’s pay in every workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the approximately 30,000 \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/howtofilewageclaim.htm\">wage claims\u003c/a> workers file annually are settled with employers or dismissed. But those that aren’t, end up in court judgments, often after a years-long process due to major \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906889/california-workers-face-years-long-waits-for-justice-in-wage-theft-cases-state-data-shows\">delays\u003c/a> at the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even after they win, many workers are then left to their own devices to \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/PubsTemp/DLSE%20Brochures/Collect%20Your%20Award%20from%20the%20Caifornia%20Labor/Brochure-JE_WEB-EN.pdf\">try to collect (PDF)\u003c/a> on those judgments. A fraction of those orders — involving people who labor in low-wage industries such as agriculture, construction and restaurants — are referred to the Labor Commissioner’s Judgment Enforcement Unit for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These specific employers sometimes that come through our office will do everything they can to avoid these payments,” said James Yang, a senior deputy who works at the unit. “They start moving property, they start trying to sell or transfer the business, getting rid of real estate… It’s not easy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yang says the unit is “very effective” at clawing back money in cases they can focus on, using collections tools that range from liens and bank levies to complex investigations to try to chase and seize assets to collect lost wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because the unit has fewer than two dozen staff positions statewide, and only 13 of those are filled, it lacks the capacity to intensively investigate the thousands of cases it handles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958146\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958146\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two people talk inside of a restaurant. One person is holding a clipboard.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-02-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Armando Ricardez, with the nonprofit Prosperity Lab, asks Lorena Gaeta, owner of Gaeta’s Taqueria, to sign a list acknowledging that she has received a certificate of completion for a training on workplace laws. The outreach effort informs small business owners about the county’s food permit enforcement program. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Working Partnerships USA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even though Santa Clara’s food permit enforcement initiative only targets a small subset of unpaid judgments, it still sends a powerful message to employers, said Yang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one county, one specific industry, we are talking about here. But it’s been very helpful,” he said. “And it’s garnered very positive attention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other counties in California have expressed interest in setting up programs like Santa Clara’s to hold more wage thieves accountable, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several \u003ca href=\"https://www.labor.ucla.edu/publication/hollow-victories-the-crisis-in-collecting-unpaid-wages-for-californias-workers/\">studies\u003c/a> point to a high proportion of wage theft victims who are unable to collect on the judgments in their favor. The California Legislative Analyst’s Office \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4165\">found\u003c/a> that fewer than half of workers who received an award for unpaid wages recovered them from their employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last decade, more than 6,500 unpaid judgments, totaling nearly $85 million, remained open after being referred to the enforcement unit, according to a spokeswoman with the Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees the Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The total amount owed to workers is likely much higher, as those figures do not include cases that were not referred to the unit and whose outcome is not known to the agency. Also omitted are judgments stemming from investigations by the agency’s Bureau of Field Enforcement, which often issues citations totaling millions of dollars for widespread violations impacting dozens of workers at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wage theft ‘not acceptable’ in Santa Clara County\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The numerous unpaid judgments show it’s “absolutely critical” for city and county governments to do more to disincentivize wage theft, said Silver Taube, the attorney working with Santa Clara County’s Wage Theft Coalition, and a supervising attorney at Alexander Community Law Center at Santa Clara University Law School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe it’s a business model. I think they know there’s no consequences, and they just don’t pay,” said Silver Taube, who has pushed for greater consequences for businesses with labor violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958147\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958147\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two people talk inside of a restaurant. One person is holding a clipboard.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-03-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melissa Sanchez speaks with Tempo Kitchen & Bar’s general manager Ricardo Rivas on April 28, 2023 in Gilroy. Sanchez is part of an outreach team that informs businesses about the county’s food permit enforcement program and workplace laws. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Wage Theft Coalition advocated for Santa Clara County to establish the food permit enforcement program, and they helped convince cities, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.milpitas.gov/FAQ.aspx?QID=365\">Milpitas\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://law.scu.edu/kgaclc/newsletter-summer-2016-eliminating-wage-theft/\">San José\u003c/a>, that it’s to their benefit, too, to deny business permits or contracts to employers with unpaid judgments at the Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The county focuses on food permits because we see a nexus between vulnerable worker populations and a large number of labor violations in the food retail industry.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Jessie Yu, Director of Santa Clara County Office of Labor Standards Enforcement","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Wage theft is on everyone’s radar now. And I do believe that there’s a consensus that it’s not acceptable in this county,” said Silver Taube. “It’s just that we have a lot of work to do, still.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to partner with community groups that inform workers of their rights and businesses of their responsibilities, said Yu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny afternoon in downtown Gilroy, a group with green buttons that read “Community Outreach” visited food businesses, distributing brochures on the permit enforcement program and inviting them to a free training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958145\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11958145\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Three people walk across a street as one of them pulls a wagon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230814-WAGE-THEFT-FJR-01-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniella Baldivia pulls a cart full of flyers as other members of the Fair Workplace Collaborative follow in downtown Gilroy. The group informed business owners at restaurants, grocery stores and cafes about the county’s food permit enforcement program. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Working Partnerships USA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure you’re up to speed on all the laws,” Melissa Sanchez, with the Fair Workplace Collaborative, told general manager Ricardo Rivas at Tempo Kitchen & Bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivas said he appreciated the outreach effort, and would sign up for the training session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are so many different things involved between state and county and federal laws, especially as far as labor goes,” Rivas said. “So being able to stay compliant with it, ensure that we are treating our workers here fairly, and in accordance with the law, is definitely a major importance for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits","authors":["8659"],"categories":["news_1758","news_24114","news_8"],"tags":["news_27626","news_19904","news_32378","news_18188","news_353","news_18208","news_33022"],"featImg":"news_11958149","label":"source_news_11958124"},"news_11956413":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11956413","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11956413","score":null,"sort":[1690282871000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-california-farmworkers-took-on-a-sonoma-winery-over-abuses-and-won","title":"How Workers Took on a Sonoma County Vineyard Company Over Abuses — and Won","publishDate":1690282871,"format":"standard","headTitle":"How Workers Took on a Sonoma County Vineyard Company Over Abuses — and Won | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957505/campesinos-denunciaron-a-un-vinedo-por-abusos-laborales-y-ganaron\">Leer en español\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#correction\">This story contains a correction.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]M[/dropcap]auritson Farms Inc. in Sonoma County will pay $328,077 to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11918317/blacklisted-for-speaking-up-how-california-farmworkers-fighting-abuses-are-vulnerable-to-retaliation\">21 of its former workers\u003c/a> as part of a \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23885712/settlement-agreement-june-2023.pdf\">settlement\u003c/a> with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) — the largest monetary settlement the agency has reached at its Santa Rosa office. ALRB officials, along with dozens of labor advocates and farmworkers, announced the settlement at a press conference Monday evening in Healdsburg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mauritson Farms Inc., which manages vineyards, is a separate and distinct business from \u003ca href=\"https://www.mauritsonwines.com/About-Us/Our-Team\">Mauritson Wines\u003c/a>. Both businesses are owned by the Mauritson family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following an investigation spurred by the farmworkers’ complaints, ALRB officials determined that Mauritson Farms retaliated against an entire crew of former employees because some of them organized at the end of the 2021 growing season to speak out against unsafe working conditions in Mauritson’s vineyards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We must recognize that this is a victory started by workers to defend not just their rights, but their dignity as well,” said organizer Davin Cárdenas at Monday’s conference. Cárdenas is the director of organizing at North Bay Jobs With Justice (NBJWJ), a labor rights group that supported the former Mauritson employees through the ALRB investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a case that sets a precedent for other workers in the region,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Miguel Ángel Bravo Silva, one of the six laborers who spoke up about their treatment at Mauritson\"]‘After so much abuse, I think it’s fair that our rights are respected and we are respected for who we are.’[/pullquote]The workers involved were immigrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, and were in the country on an H-2A visa, which lets agricultural workers stay in the U.S. for limited periods of time. KQED first reported last year that despite promises from company leadership, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11918317/blacklisted-for-speaking-up-how-california-farmworkers-fighting-abuses-are-vulnerable-to-retaliation\">none of the workers who spoke out were called back from Oaxaca for the 2022 season\u003c/a>. In its complaint filed against Mauritson this past March, the ALRB \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23885711/alrb-complaint-march-2023.pdf\">determined that Mauritson not rehiring these laborers constituted an illegal labor practice\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I got the news, I thanked God it went this way, because this was not at all easy. We were very afraid to speak up. It was a complicated process but you have to let go of that fear,” said Martín Sandoval Rivera, one of the workers who spoke up against the conditions at Mauritson Farms. He’s currently in Oaxaca, working several jobs to support his wife who is expecting their first child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval Rivera and his colleagues said they experienced verbal harassment from their supervisor, were denied shade while working in the fields on days hotter than 90 degrees and did not receive their break and lunch periods on a few occasions — all of which violates California labor regulations. Six of the workers, including Sandoval Rivera, sought the support of labor rights group North Bay Jobs With Justice (NBJWJ) to mediate the situation. NBJWJ arranged a meeting with the workers and company higher-ups in October 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that meeting, vineyard manager Cameron Mauritson promised that conditions would improve and assured the workers that he would hire them again in 2022 — relieving the workers’ biggest worry: being denied future employment for speaking up. Then the company — which workers said had previously handled the recruitment process directly using social media — chose to contract with a third-party recruiter, CIERTO Global, to handle hiring for the 2022 season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group from Oaxaca never had a real chance to come back. According to the ALRB complaint, CIERTO Global recruits exclusively from a completely different state in Mexico for grape-growing companies. On top of that, screengrabs from a Facebook group the Oaxacan workers shared with KQED showed that Mauritson management shared incorrect information on how workers should contact CIERTO for future employment. CIERTO representatives confirmed to KQED that Mauritson’s instructions to either submit a form at a specific location on CIERTO’s website or to email a given email address were false.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These instructions do not reflect our practices involving any of the workers we serve,” a CIERTO representative said in an emailed response. “Mauritson’s instructions were not cleared or disseminated by CIERTO.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11918317]When the workers realized what was happening, they alerted NBJWJ. In February 2022, organizers filed a claim with the ALRB on behalf of the six workers who attended the meeting with Mauritson. Six initially spoke up — but in its investigation, the ALRB found that Mauritson retaliated against the entire 21-person team the six workers belonged to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $328,077 settlement, which will benefit all 21 laborers, represents what the workers lost by missing the 2022 growing season, according to calculations from the ALRB. A hearing with an administrative law judge had been scheduled for later this summer, but the settlement concludes this process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement emailed to KQED, Mauritson Farms declared that it “strongly believes that [it was] not in any violation of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA). This settlement is strictly a business decision that allows us to resolve this issue without the need for further litigation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956408\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956408\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A group of people sit together holding signs reading \"La Unión Hace La Fuerza\" in an outdoor setting.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers Antonio Flores (left) and his son Mateo, Rosalba Gutierrez (center) and Valentina Sosa (right) sit at the NBJWJ press conference announcing the settlement with Mauritson at Healdsburg Plaza on Monday. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“After so much abuse, I think it’s fair that our rights are respected and we are respected for who we are,” said Miguel Ángel Bravo Silva, one of the six laborers who met with Mauritson. During the past year and a half, he’s hustled to work any job he can find in his rural Oaxacan community to support his wife and two children, and at the same time, kept in touch with ALRB officials who were investigating the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For months, the ALRB worked to track down the 21 workers who were not rehired. After the 2021 season ended, many returned to remote villages in Oaxaca, where access to the internet and cell phone reception is extremely limited and for some, non-existent. Tracking folks down was one challenge, said ALRB regional director Jessica Arciniega. The other was establishing trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With many of our cases, there’s challenges in maintaining communication with workers,” she said. “They [could be] unfamiliar with our process, they [could be] unfamiliar with us, as a government agency. and what we actually do. So they may not always feel 100% ready or comfortable to share all of this information.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ana Salgado, former farmworker and member of the NBJWJ board\"]‘So many [H-2A laborers] are afraid of losing the opportunity they have… They may be experiencing many abuses but they do not want to say anything because they are afraid of losing what they consider to be a privilege.’[/pullquote]Workers are not just afraid of experiencing further retaliation from the same employer, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11918317/blacklisted-for-speaking-up-how-california-farmworkers-fighting-abuses-are-vulnerable-to-retaliation\">as KQED reported last year, many H-2A employers use a network of recruiters to block workers who speak up from finding a job\u003c/a> in other agricultural industries. In that same story, KQED shared the story of Kevin and Samuel, two former Mauritson employees who were among the six that initially spoke up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin and Samuel were actually aliases for Sandoval Rivera and Bravo Silva, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, both men were very afraid of what the repercussions would be if they shared their identities publicly during the ALRB investigation. As weeks turned into months, Sandoval Rivera felt less and less confident that there would be an answer from officials, especially as his family’s economic situation worsened. “Necessity makes you think many things,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, he and Bravo Silva are glad they waited for the results of the investigation and the settlement. This won’t just benefit them, Bravo Silva says, “but also the immigrant workers who are now working at that company, so that they are respected more and they don’t feel alone. There are laws that protect agricultural workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Celebrating a hard-won victory\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With banners and signs — many of them emblazoned with Emiliano Zapata’s quote “La tierra es de quien la trabaja,” or “The land belongs to those who work it with their hands” — farmworkers and NBJWJ organizers filled up part of Healdsburg’s main plaza for Monday’s press conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You represent the farmworkers who are not able to be here today but whose courage has left us this legacy: that by fighting and finding allies, we, as workers, can achieve many things,” said Ana Salgado former farmworker, community organizer and member of the NBJWJ board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956412\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A person wearing earrings speaks in front of others holding signs reading \"La Unión Hace la Fuerza\" and \"Farmworkers Deserve Disaster Pay\" in an outdoor setting.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NBJWJ board member and former farmworker Ana Salgado (center) speaks at Monday’s press conference at Healdsburg Plaza. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Only a few blocks away from that plaza is the community center where Salgado originally met several of the men then working for Mauritson. She remembers the first conversations she had with the laborers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I looked at one of them and saw the worry in his face,” she said in Spanish, “I reached out to hold his hands and told him, ‘you can open up now, you’re in a safe space.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many [H-2A laborers] are afraid of losing the opportunity they have because employers tell them that it is a privilege to be brought from Mexico with a visa,” she explained. “They may be experiencing many abuses but they do not want to say anything because they are afraid of losing what they consider to be a privilege.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Just law on paper’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The H-2A visa program is the successor of the Bracero Program, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/31/634442195/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers\">which brought Mexican workers to American farms during the 1940s\u003c/a>. The current H-2A system now brings laborers from all over the world to work in the U.S. and as part of the program, employers must provide housing, transportation and meals — giving businesses an incredible amount of power over the personal lives of their workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just like the Bracero Program, \u003ca href=\"https://prismreports.org/2023/04/14/h2a-visa-wage-theft-exploitation/\">the H-2A system is rife with wage theft, physical and mental abuse of employees and retaliation from employers for workers who speak up\u003c/a>, according to an 18-month investigation by Prism, Futuro Investigates, and Latino USA published in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956409\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A person with a shaved head speaks in front of others holding signs reading \"Farmworkers Deserve Disaster Pay\" in an outdoor setting.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NBJWJ Director Davin Cárdenas speaks at Monday’s press conference at Healdsburg Plaza. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Both the federal government and California have beefed up their labor laws since the 1940s, so why does abuse of H-2A laborers persist?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason is that regulatory agencies need more personnel and resources to enforce labor standards, says Josephine Weinberg, attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), a nonprofit law firm that represents farmworkers who have experienced retaliation and workplace abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have agencies in place. We have a lot of the rules in place. But the mechanisms to really enforce those rules and monitor are really lacking. So it really is just law on paper,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 1 in 3 positions remain vacant at the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, one of the agencies tasked with investigating wage theft and retaliation across all industries in the state. Such understaffing leaves current staff overburdened with cases, which means workers who file a complaint often have to wait years for a result. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955920/california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis\">Dozens of agency employees implored lawmakers to take action in a letter obtained by KQED earlier this month\u003c/a>, arguing that “we are failing in our mission if we cannot hire and retain the necessary staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11955920]Over at the ALRB, regional director Arciniega points out that her agency has five offices spread over several agricultural regions, “but California is a humongous state and there’s a lot of farmworkers throughout the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have offices in all of the agricultural regions,” she said, “so we do our best in this large state to cover wherever workers are.” She adds that the department works closely with community and labor organizations, like NBJWJ, to connect with laborers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But labor advocates insist that more must be done to better enforce labor standards and improve the H-2A program as a whole. Weinberg with the CRLA adds that regulators need to monitor farms more closely, with randomized visits during the growing season. And on the flip side, employers must make it easier for agencies and labor groups to speak to farmworkers in an unrestricted manner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way the H-2A program was designed, where businesses have direct control over their employees’ housing, transportation, immigration status and even food, makes it incredibly difficult for laborers to speak freely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t have access to a place where they feel that they can speak confidentially or anonymously about what’s going on,” Weinberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 19, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956315/some-migrant-farmworkers-to-get-free-legal-help-with-immigration\">announced a $4.5 million pilot program to provide free immigration legal services to farmworkers who are involved in state labor investigations\u003c/a>. This would include case review services, legal advice and representation by an attorney to laborers in California who have a pending case with either the ALRB, the Labor Commissioner’s Office or Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11956315]The goal of this program, officials say, is to address one of the fears that prevents employees from speaking up — the fear of losing their visa or not being rehired — by connecting them to immigration experts who could help them find ways to stay in this country. And earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11940316/fear-of-deportation-keeps-some-workers-from-reporting-labor-abuses-a-new-biden-program-aims-to-change-that\">the Biden administration unveiled a new, streamlined “deferred action” initiative\u003c/a> that allows workers to apply for a work permit and two years of protection from deportation, if they are cooperating with a labor rights investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But above all, what really helps folks feel safe enough to speak up, Salgado from NBJWJ says, is knowing that there are cases when the system works in favor of workers. “Without a doubt, the outcome from the Mauritson case, reaffirms the faith amongst ourselves, but also the credibility of the work we do when we go out to talk to the workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca id=\"correction\">\u003c/a>Editor’s note: The original version of this story mischaracterized Mauritson Farms, Inc. as a winery. The story has been updated to clarify the relationship between Mauritson Farms, Inc. and Mauritson Wines.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Farida Jhabvala Romero and Tyche Hendricks.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Mauritson Farms Inc. will pay $328,077 to 21 former workers from Oaxaca after California regulators found the Healdsburg company retaliated against them.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1694536033,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":46,"wordCount":2496},"headData":{"title":"How Workers Took on a Sonoma County Vineyard Company Over Abuses — and Won | KQED","description":"Mauritson Farms Inc. will pay $328,077 to 21 former workers from Oaxaca after California regulators found the Healdsburg company retaliated against them.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"How Workers Took on a Sonoma County Vineyard Company Over Abuses — and Won","datePublished":"2023-07-25T11:01:11.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-12T16:27:13.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11956413/how-california-farmworkers-took-on-a-sonoma-winery-over-abuses-and-won","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957505/campesinos-denunciaron-a-un-vinedo-por-abusos-laborales-y-ganaron\">Leer en español\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#correction\">This story contains a correction.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">M\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>auritson Farms Inc. in Sonoma County will pay $328,077 to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11918317/blacklisted-for-speaking-up-how-california-farmworkers-fighting-abuses-are-vulnerable-to-retaliation\">21 of its former workers\u003c/a> as part of a \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23885712/settlement-agreement-june-2023.pdf\">settlement\u003c/a> with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) — the largest monetary settlement the agency has reached at its Santa Rosa office. ALRB officials, along with dozens of labor advocates and farmworkers, announced the settlement at a press conference Monday evening in Healdsburg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mauritson Farms Inc., which manages vineyards, is a separate and distinct business from \u003ca href=\"https://www.mauritsonwines.com/About-Us/Our-Team\">Mauritson Wines\u003c/a>. Both businesses are owned by the Mauritson family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following an investigation spurred by the farmworkers’ complaints, ALRB officials determined that Mauritson Farms retaliated against an entire crew of former employees because some of them organized at the end of the 2021 growing season to speak out against unsafe working conditions in Mauritson’s vineyards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We must recognize that this is a victory started by workers to defend not just their rights, but their dignity as well,” said organizer Davin Cárdenas at Monday’s conference. Cárdenas is the director of organizing at North Bay Jobs With Justice (NBJWJ), a labor rights group that supported the former Mauritson employees through the ALRB investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a case that sets a precedent for other workers in the region,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘After so much abuse, I think it’s fair that our rights are respected and we are respected for who we are.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Miguel Ángel Bravo Silva, one of the six laborers who spoke up about their treatment at Mauritson","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The workers involved were immigrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, and were in the country on an H-2A visa, which lets agricultural workers stay in the U.S. for limited periods of time. KQED first reported last year that despite promises from company leadership, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11918317/blacklisted-for-speaking-up-how-california-farmworkers-fighting-abuses-are-vulnerable-to-retaliation\">none of the workers who spoke out were called back from Oaxaca for the 2022 season\u003c/a>. In its complaint filed against Mauritson this past March, the ALRB \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23885711/alrb-complaint-march-2023.pdf\">determined that Mauritson not rehiring these laborers constituted an illegal labor practice\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I got the news, I thanked God it went this way, because this was not at all easy. We were very afraid to speak up. It was a complicated process but you have to let go of that fear,” said Martín Sandoval Rivera, one of the workers who spoke up against the conditions at Mauritson Farms. He’s currently in Oaxaca, working several jobs to support his wife who is expecting their first child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval Rivera and his colleagues said they experienced verbal harassment from their supervisor, were denied shade while working in the fields on days hotter than 90 degrees and did not receive their break and lunch periods on a few occasions — all of which violates California labor regulations. Six of the workers, including Sandoval Rivera, sought the support of labor rights group North Bay Jobs With Justice (NBJWJ) to mediate the situation. NBJWJ arranged a meeting with the workers and company higher-ups in October 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that meeting, vineyard manager Cameron Mauritson promised that conditions would improve and assured the workers that he would hire them again in 2022 — relieving the workers’ biggest worry: being denied future employment for speaking up. Then the company — which workers said had previously handled the recruitment process directly using social media — chose to contract with a third-party recruiter, CIERTO Global, to handle hiring for the 2022 season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group from Oaxaca never had a real chance to come back. According to the ALRB complaint, CIERTO Global recruits exclusively from a completely different state in Mexico for grape-growing companies. On top of that, screengrabs from a Facebook group the Oaxacan workers shared with KQED showed that Mauritson management shared incorrect information on how workers should contact CIERTO for future employment. CIERTO representatives confirmed to KQED that Mauritson’s instructions to either submit a form at a specific location on CIERTO’s website or to email a given email address were false.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These instructions do not reflect our practices involving any of the workers we serve,” a CIERTO representative said in an emailed response. “Mauritson’s instructions were not cleared or disseminated by CIERTO.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11918317","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When the workers realized what was happening, they alerted NBJWJ. In February 2022, organizers filed a claim with the ALRB on behalf of the six workers who attended the meeting with Mauritson. Six initially spoke up — but in its investigation, the ALRB found that Mauritson retaliated against the entire 21-person team the six workers belonged to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $328,077 settlement, which will benefit all 21 laborers, represents what the workers lost by missing the 2022 growing season, according to calculations from the ALRB. A hearing with an administrative law judge had been scheduled for later this summer, but the settlement concludes this process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement emailed to KQED, Mauritson Farms declared that it “strongly believes that [it was] not in any violation of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA). This settlement is strictly a business decision that allows us to resolve this issue without the need for further litigation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956408\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956408\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A group of people sit together holding signs reading \"La Unión Hace La Fuerza\" in an outdoor setting.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67230_20230724-NBJWJPresser-10-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers Antonio Flores (left) and his son Mateo, Rosalba Gutierrez (center) and Valentina Sosa (right) sit at the NBJWJ press conference announcing the settlement with Mauritson at Healdsburg Plaza on Monday. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“After so much abuse, I think it’s fair that our rights are respected and we are respected for who we are,” said Miguel Ángel Bravo Silva, one of the six laborers who met with Mauritson. During the past year and a half, he’s hustled to work any job he can find in his rural Oaxacan community to support his wife and two children, and at the same time, kept in touch with ALRB officials who were investigating the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For months, the ALRB worked to track down the 21 workers who were not rehired. After the 2021 season ended, many returned to remote villages in Oaxaca, where access to the internet and cell phone reception is extremely limited and for some, non-existent. Tracking folks down was one challenge, said ALRB regional director Jessica Arciniega. The other was establishing trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With many of our cases, there’s challenges in maintaining communication with workers,” she said. “They [could be] unfamiliar with our process, they [could be] unfamiliar with us, as a government agency. and what we actually do. So they may not always feel 100% ready or comfortable to share all of this information.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘So many [H-2A laborers] are afraid of losing the opportunity they have… They may be experiencing many abuses but they do not want to say anything because they are afraid of losing what they consider to be a privilege.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Ana Salgado, former farmworker and member of the NBJWJ board","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Workers are not just afraid of experiencing further retaliation from the same employer, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11918317/blacklisted-for-speaking-up-how-california-farmworkers-fighting-abuses-are-vulnerable-to-retaliation\">as KQED reported last year, many H-2A employers use a network of recruiters to block workers who speak up from finding a job\u003c/a> in other agricultural industries. In that same story, KQED shared the story of Kevin and Samuel, two former Mauritson employees who were among the six that initially spoke up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin and Samuel were actually aliases for Sandoval Rivera and Bravo Silva, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, both men were very afraid of what the repercussions would be if they shared their identities publicly during the ALRB investigation. As weeks turned into months, Sandoval Rivera felt less and less confident that there would be an answer from officials, especially as his family’s economic situation worsened. “Necessity makes you think many things,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, he and Bravo Silva are glad they waited for the results of the investigation and the settlement. This won’t just benefit them, Bravo Silva says, “but also the immigrant workers who are now working at that company, so that they are respected more and they don’t feel alone. There are laws that protect agricultural workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Celebrating a hard-won victory\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With banners and signs — many of them emblazoned with Emiliano Zapata’s quote “La tierra es de quien la trabaja,” or “The land belongs to those who work it with their hands” — farmworkers and NBJWJ organizers filled up part of Healdsburg’s main plaza for Monday’s press conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You represent the farmworkers who are not able to be here today but whose courage has left us this legacy: that by fighting and finding allies, we, as workers, can achieve many things,” said Ana Salgado former farmworker, community organizer and member of the NBJWJ board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956412\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A person wearing earrings speaks in front of others holding signs reading \"La Unión Hace la Fuerza\" and \"Farmworkers Deserve Disaster Pay\" in an outdoor setting.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67238_20230724-NBJWJPresser-16-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NBJWJ board member and former farmworker Ana Salgado (center) speaks at Monday’s press conference at Healdsburg Plaza. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Only a few blocks away from that plaza is the community center where Salgado originally met several of the men then working for Mauritson. She remembers the first conversations she had with the laborers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I looked at one of them and saw the worry in his face,” she said in Spanish, “I reached out to hold his hands and told him, ‘you can open up now, you’re in a safe space.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many [H-2A laborers] are afraid of losing the opportunity they have because employers tell them that it is a privilege to be brought from Mexico with a visa,” she explained. “They may be experiencing many abuses but they do not want to say anything because they are afraid of losing what they consider to be a privilege.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Just law on paper’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The H-2A visa program is the successor of the Bracero Program, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/31/634442195/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers\">which brought Mexican workers to American farms during the 1940s\u003c/a>. The current H-2A system now brings laborers from all over the world to work in the U.S. and as part of the program, employers must provide housing, transportation and meals — giving businesses an incredible amount of power over the personal lives of their workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just like the Bracero Program, \u003ca href=\"https://prismreports.org/2023/04/14/h2a-visa-wage-theft-exploitation/\">the H-2A system is rife with wage theft, physical and mental abuse of employees and retaliation from employers for workers who speak up\u003c/a>, according to an 18-month investigation by Prism, Futuro Investigates, and Latino USA published in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956409\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A person with a shaved head speaks in front of others holding signs reading \"Farmworkers Deserve Disaster Pay\" in an outdoor setting.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67234_20230724-NBJWJPresser-13-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NBJWJ Director Davin Cárdenas speaks at Monday’s press conference at Healdsburg Plaza. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Both the federal government and California have beefed up their labor laws since the 1940s, so why does abuse of H-2A laborers persist?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason is that regulatory agencies need more personnel and resources to enforce labor standards, says Josephine Weinberg, attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), a nonprofit law firm that represents farmworkers who have experienced retaliation and workplace abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have agencies in place. We have a lot of the rules in place. But the mechanisms to really enforce those rules and monitor are really lacking. So it really is just law on paper,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 1 in 3 positions remain vacant at the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, one of the agencies tasked with investigating wage theft and retaliation across all industries in the state. Such understaffing leaves current staff overburdened with cases, which means workers who file a complaint often have to wait years for a result. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955920/california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis\">Dozens of agency employees implored lawmakers to take action in a letter obtained by KQED earlier this month\u003c/a>, arguing that “we are failing in our mission if we cannot hire and retain the necessary staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11955920","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Over at the ALRB, regional director Arciniega points out that her agency has five offices spread over several agricultural regions, “but California is a humongous state and there’s a lot of farmworkers throughout the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have offices in all of the agricultural regions,” she said, “so we do our best in this large state to cover wherever workers are.” She adds that the department works closely with community and labor organizations, like NBJWJ, to connect with laborers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But labor advocates insist that more must be done to better enforce labor standards and improve the H-2A program as a whole. Weinberg with the CRLA adds that regulators need to monitor farms more closely, with randomized visits during the growing season. And on the flip side, employers must make it easier for agencies and labor groups to speak to farmworkers in an unrestricted manner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way the H-2A program was designed, where businesses have direct control over their employees’ housing, transportation, immigration status and even food, makes it incredibly difficult for laborers to speak freely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t have access to a place where they feel that they can speak confidentially or anonymously about what’s going on,” Weinberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 19, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956315/some-migrant-farmworkers-to-get-free-legal-help-with-immigration\">announced a $4.5 million pilot program to provide free immigration legal services to farmworkers who are involved in state labor investigations\u003c/a>. This would include case review services, legal advice and representation by an attorney to laborers in California who have a pending case with either the ALRB, the Labor Commissioner’s Office or Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11956315","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The goal of this program, officials say, is to address one of the fears that prevents employees from speaking up — the fear of losing their visa or not being rehired — by connecting them to immigration experts who could help them find ways to stay in this country. And earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11940316/fear-of-deportation-keeps-some-workers-from-reporting-labor-abuses-a-new-biden-program-aims-to-change-that\">the Biden administration unveiled a new, streamlined “deferred action” initiative\u003c/a> that allows workers to apply for a work permit and two years of protection from deportation, if they are cooperating with a labor rights investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But above all, what really helps folks feel safe enough to speak up, Salgado from NBJWJ says, is knowing that there are cases when the system works in favor of workers. “Without a doubt, the outcome from the Mauritson case, reaffirms the faith amongst ourselves, but also the credibility of the work we do when we go out to talk to the workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca id=\"correction\">\u003c/a>Editor’s note: The original version of this story mischaracterized Mauritson Farms, Inc. as a winery. The story has been updated to clarify the relationship between Mauritson Farms, Inc. and Mauritson Wines.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Farida Jhabvala Romero and Tyche Hendricks.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11956413/how-california-farmworkers-took-on-a-sonoma-winery-over-abuses-and-won","authors":["11708"],"categories":["news_31795","news_1169","news_8"],"tags":["news_31272","news_18269","news_27626","news_20202","news_19904","news_31268","news_31269","news_4981","news_244","news_31320","news_18208"],"featImg":"news_11956456","label":"news"},"news_11956315":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11956315","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11956315","score":null,"sort":[1690227639000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"some-migrant-farmworkers-to-get-free-legal-help-with-immigration","title":"Some Migrant Farmworkers to Get Free Legal Help With Immigration","publishDate":1690227639,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Some Migrant Farmworkers to Get Free Legal Help With Immigration | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>California will begin paying for free legal help with immigration for undocumented farmworkers who are involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $4.5 million pilot program will provide qualifying farmworkers with referrals for legal help with their immigration status. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roughly half of California’s farmworker population is believed to be undocumented. Fear of deportation and difficulties finding jobs \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11918317/blacklisted-for-speaking-up-how-california-farmworkers-fighting-abuses-are-vulnerable-to-retaliation\">can discourage workers from filing labor complaints\u003c/a> or serving as witnesses in cases alleging unsafe work temperatures, wage theft, or employer retaliation for unionizing, officials said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Maria Elena De La Garza, executive director, Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County\"]‘The time is now for us to ensure that immigrant labor rights are upheld and respected.’[/pullquote]“Farmworkers are the backbone of our economy, and we won’t stand by as bad actors use the threat of deportation as a form of exploitation,” Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/07/19/california-providing-free-legal-services-for-undocumented-farmworkers/\">said in a press release\u003c/a>. “In the absence of Congress modernizing our broken, outdated immigration system, California continues our efforts to support immigrant families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State labor investigations into wage theft and other violations often take years to resolve, a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/11/california-wage-theft-workers/?series=unpaid-wages-california-workers\">CalMatters investigation revealed last year\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes workers give up the battle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Respecting immigrant rights\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Farmworkers in labor investigations who qualify for the new state program will receive a direct referral to legal services organizations that already offer immigration services, such as the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County or the United Farm Workers Foundation, which spoke in support of the program. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11918317 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/FarmworkersIlloVignet-1020x659.jpg']The free legal services workers could receive include case review, legal advice and representation by an attorney, according to Newsom’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The time is now for us to ensure that immigrant labor rights are upheld and respected,” said Maria Elena De La Garza, executive director of the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County. “We commend the state for supporting this pilot, which will help ensure that legal services are available and accessible through partnerships with trusted community-based organizations across California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials did not answer questions about when the program would begin this year, which community organizations it would partner with, or how many cases the pilot program is expected to process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding for the pilot program will come from the $45 million the state annually allocates for immigration services from the California Department of Social Services, said Erin Hickey, spokesperson for the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency. The state is still completing contracts with selected immigration service providers, she said. \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Deferred deportation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>State officials said the pilot program aligns with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/01/13/dhs-announces-process-enhancements-supporting-labor-enforcement-investigations\">new Biden administration policy\u003c/a> that makes it easier for undocumented workers who are victims of labor rights violations to request deferred action from deportation. Because the federal Department of Homeland Security can’t respond to all immigration violations, it exercises “prosecutorial discretion” to decide who to try to deport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/dhs_deferred_action_FAQ.htm\">State officials said\u003c/a> they won’t ask for workers’ immigration status, but noncitizens granted this deferred action may be eligible for work authorization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11955359,news_11955083,news_11940316\" label=\"Related Stories\"]This year, California labor department officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/dhs_deferred_action_FAQ.htm\">began supporting\u003c/a> undocumented workers’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/01/13/dhs-announces-process-enhancements-supporting-labor-enforcement-investigations\">requests for prosecutorial discretion\u003c/a> or deferred action from federal immigration officials, including when employers threaten workers with immigration enforcement to prevent workers from cooperating with state investigators. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Department of Industrial Relations’ Labor Commissioner’s Office … was the first state agency to request deferred action from DHS for employees in an active investigation, and that request was successful,” Hickey said. “This is an important process for undocumented workers to be aware of.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A point person assigned to the pilot program will help connect farmworkers with legal service providers. Other state labor agencies already have staffers working with federal immigration officials on prosecutorial discretion cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/esmeralda-soria-1982/\">Esmerelda Soria\u003c/a>, a Merced Democrat and new chairperson of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, said this is a welcome way to ensure farmworkers among her Central Valley constituents won’t be exploited. Although other organizations serving farmworkers provide similar types of legal aid, she said, funding rarely matches the need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, California acknowledges that we have a broken system,” Soria told CalMatters. “Especially in the region that I represent, farmworkers are really the backbone of one of the largest agricultural economies in the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will spend $4.5 million on free legal services for undocumented workers involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1701974436,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":20,"wordCount":777},"headData":{"title":"Some Migrant Farmworkers to Get Free Legal Help With Immigration | KQED","description":"Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will spend $4.5 million on free legal services for undocumented workers involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Some Migrant Farmworkers to Get Free Legal Help With Immigration","datePublished":"2023-07-24T19:40:39.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-07T18:40:36.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"Calmatters","sourceUrl":"https://calmatters.org/","sticky":false,"nprByline":"\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/nicole-foy/\">Nicole Foy\u003c/a>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11956315/some-migrant-farmworkers-to-get-free-legal-help-with-immigration","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California will begin paying for free legal help with immigration for undocumented farmworkers who are involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $4.5 million pilot program will provide qualifying farmworkers with referrals for legal help with their immigration status. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roughly half of California’s farmworker population is believed to be undocumented. Fear of deportation and difficulties finding jobs \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11918317/blacklisted-for-speaking-up-how-california-farmworkers-fighting-abuses-are-vulnerable-to-retaliation\">can discourage workers from filing labor complaints\u003c/a> or serving as witnesses in cases alleging unsafe work temperatures, wage theft, or employer retaliation for unionizing, officials said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The time is now for us to ensure that immigrant labor rights are upheld and respected.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Maria Elena De La Garza, executive director, Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Farmworkers are the backbone of our economy, and we won’t stand by as bad actors use the threat of deportation as a form of exploitation,” Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/07/19/california-providing-free-legal-services-for-undocumented-farmworkers/\">said in a press release\u003c/a>. “In the absence of Congress modernizing our broken, outdated immigration system, California continues our efforts to support immigrant families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State labor investigations into wage theft and other violations often take years to resolve, a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/11/california-wage-theft-workers/?series=unpaid-wages-california-workers\">CalMatters investigation revealed last year\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes workers give up the battle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Respecting immigrant rights\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Farmworkers in labor investigations who qualify for the new state program will receive a direct referral to legal services organizations that already offer immigration services, such as the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County or the United Farm Workers Foundation, which spoke in support of the program. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11918317","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/FarmworkersIlloVignet-1020x659.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The free legal services workers could receive include case review, legal advice and representation by an attorney, according to Newsom’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The time is now for us to ensure that immigrant labor rights are upheld and respected,” said Maria Elena De La Garza, executive director of the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County. “We commend the state for supporting this pilot, which will help ensure that legal services are available and accessible through partnerships with trusted community-based organizations across California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials did not answer questions about when the program would begin this year, which community organizations it would partner with, or how many cases the pilot program is expected to process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding for the pilot program will come from the $45 million the state annually allocates for immigration services from the California Department of Social Services, said Erin Hickey, spokesperson for the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency. The state is still completing contracts with selected immigration service providers, she said. \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Deferred deportation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>State officials said the pilot program aligns with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/01/13/dhs-announces-process-enhancements-supporting-labor-enforcement-investigations\">new Biden administration policy\u003c/a> that makes it easier for undocumented workers who are victims of labor rights violations to request deferred action from deportation. Because the federal Department of Homeland Security can’t respond to all immigration violations, it exercises “prosecutorial discretion” to decide who to try to deport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/dhs_deferred_action_FAQ.htm\">State officials said\u003c/a> they won’t ask for workers’ immigration status, but noncitizens granted this deferred action may be eligible for work authorization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11955359,news_11955083,news_11940316","label":"Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This year, California labor department officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/dhs_deferred_action_FAQ.htm\">began supporting\u003c/a> undocumented workers’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/01/13/dhs-announces-process-enhancements-supporting-labor-enforcement-investigations\">requests for prosecutorial discretion\u003c/a> or deferred action from federal immigration officials, including when employers threaten workers with immigration enforcement to prevent workers from cooperating with state investigators. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Department of Industrial Relations’ Labor Commissioner’s Office … was the first state agency to request deferred action from DHS for employees in an active investigation, and that request was successful,” Hickey said. “This is an important process for undocumented workers to be aware of.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A point person assigned to the pilot program will help connect farmworkers with legal service providers. Other state labor agencies already have staffers working with federal immigration officials on prosecutorial discretion cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/esmeralda-soria-1982/\">Esmerelda Soria\u003c/a>, a Merced Democrat and new chairperson of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, said this is a welcome way to ensure farmworkers among her Central Valley constituents won’t be exploited. Although other organizations serving farmworkers provide similar types of legal aid, she said, funding rarely matches the need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, California acknowledges that we have a broken system,” Soria told CalMatters. “Especially in the region that I represent, farmworkers are really the backbone of one of the largest agricultural economies in the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11956315/some-migrant-farmworkers-to-get-free-legal-help-with-immigration","authors":["byline_news_11956315"],"categories":["news_8","news_13"],"tags":["news_18269","news_27626","news_16","news_19904","news_17968","news_32944","news_32380","news_18208"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11878990","label":"source_news_11956315"},"news_11955920":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11955920","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11955920","score":null,"sort":[1689718405000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis","title":"State Wage-Theft Investigators Say Staffing Crisis Is Hurting the Agency","publishDate":1689718405,"format":"standard","headTitle":"State Wage-Theft Investigators Say Staffing Crisis Is Hurting the Agency | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>About 1 in 3 positions at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906889/california-workers-face-years-long-waits-for-justice-in-wage-theft-cases-state-data-shows\">California Labor Commissioner’s Office\u003c/a>, the agency tasked with investigating wage theft and other labor law violations, remain unfilled. The vacancy “crisis” is leading to burnout, low morale and the hemorrhaging of staffers, according to a letter by dozens of department employees obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as tens of thousands of Californians, who claim their employers shorted them on their paychecks, are forced to contend with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11913910/despite-record-budget-surplus-california-unlikely-to-fix-massive-wage-theft-claim-delays-anytime-soon\">massive delays\u003c/a> in seeing their cases resolved by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their letter, the nearly 80 rank-and-file employees of the Labor Commissioner’s Office implored lawmakers to address major barriers such as an “unreasonably slow” hiring process and low compensation, which they say prevent the agency from achieving a fully staffed department that can efficiently tackle the growing backlog of cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staffing vacancies have reached 30% to 40% in various units of the agency, they added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are failing in our mission if we cannot hire and retain the necessary staff,” they wrote. “The high vacancy rate naturally leads to higher caseloads, additional work responding to members of the public inquiring about the status of their claims, lower morale due to historic backlogs and increased stress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The July 9 message to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee offers a rare behind-the-scenes perspective of agency employees who are struggling to respond to an increasing volume of new wage-theft complaints exacerbated by hundreds of unfilled positions the state has budgeted for.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Joint statement, California Labor Commissioner’s Office employees\"]‘The high vacancy rate naturally leads to higher caseloads, additional work responding to members of the public inquiring about the status of their claims, lower morale due to historic backlogs and increased stress.’[/pullquote]The Labor Commissioner employees requested an audit focusing on how to make salaries at their agency more competitive — and how to fix a “crippling inability” to hire and retain staff by the California Human Resources Department (CalHR) and human resources at the Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State government tends to offer lower wages when compared to the private sector, while hiring tends to be slower as well, according to experts. But salaries at the Labor Commissioner’s Office lag by nearly 30% compared to public-sector peers, said the employees, and the hiring process is so slow and inefficient that qualified candidates end up taking jobs elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those inefficiencies include making candidates apply multiple times for the same job after CalHR or the Department of Industrial Relations decides a new job posting is required, said the staffers, who include hearing officers, attorneys and investigators throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All those hoops constitute extra work for Labor Commissioner employees, too. They worried that sometimes the HR departments decide “ … after our staff [spends] countless hours interviewing and vetting candidates, that the candidates … from the list HR itself provided, do not meet minimum qualifications for the positions,” the letter stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Over 200 vacant positions\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Nearly 240 positions were vacant at the Labor Commissioner’s Office in May 2022, according to public testimony by agency officials. Even in years when Gov. Gavin \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11913910/despite-record-budget-surplus-california-unlikely-to-fix-massive-wage-theft-claim-delays-anytime-soon\">Newsom proposed expanding the agency’s budget\u003c/a> to hire more employees, the agency remained severely understaffed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Industrial Relations did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for CalHR said the department is trying to improve the hiring process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CalHR is working on a number of strategies to help eliminate barriers to hiring and retaining employees,” said Camille Travis, deputy director of communications at CalHR, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They include the Work for California recruitment campaign which kicked off in February, increasing the number of hiring events with our department partners (virtual and in-person), and improvements to CalCareers that will make it easier for candidates to navigate the state hiring process,” Travis wrote.[aside postID=news_11944515 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMWorkers01-1020x680.jpg']The Labor Commissioner’s wage claim process was created as a faster and free alternative for workers who lack the resources to hire an attorney and pursue their claim in court. Many of the workers who seek help from the state agency are living paycheck to paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers rights advocates and labor officials agree that the longer a wage claim languishes without resolution, the harder it tends to be for workers who win their cases to ultimately recover any money. That’s in part because many businesses close, go bankrupt or move assets to avoid paying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But workers are often forced to wait years before receiving a hearing and a final decision from the state on their wage-theft cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of May 2022, about half of the 36,000 pending claims for unpaid wages at the agency had taken longer than a year to resolve, according to Labor Commissioner figures obtained and analyzed by KQED. Nearly 4,000 of those cases had languished for three years or more.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘I feel betrayed’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Landscaper Juan Carlos Alas has yet to receive a final decision on the complaint he began with the Labor Commissioner’s Office in September 2020, after his employer filed for bankruptcy and failed to pay him and co-workers the last of their wages. The father of two said he fell behind on rent payments and bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was hard because we needed the money they stole from us,” said Alas, 36, who lives in Redwood City. “If we work, we have the right to get paid for that work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But collecting any of the $22,000 in unpaid wages, overtime and penalties Alas claims may now be “difficult if not impossible,” said Jennifer Smith, Alas’ attorney at the nonprofit Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. The defendant has since moved away and can’t be located, she said.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Juan Carlos Alas, landscaper\"]‘I feel betrayed. We trusted California’s laws, and up to now, we haven’t seen any results.’[/pullquote]The nearly three-year wait has frustrated Alas, who argues the agency is supposed to help workers like him gain some justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel betrayed,” said Alas, who is originally from El Salvador. “We trusted California’s laws, and up to now, we haven’t seen any results.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Assemblymember David Alvarez, told KQED the Labor Commissioner employee letter was “alarming” and that staffers’ concerns would inform a \u003ca href=\"https://legaudit.assembly.ca.gov/sites/legaudit.assembly.ca.gov/files/2023-104%20%20California%20Labor%20Commissioner%E2%80%99s%20Office%E2%80%94Backlog%20of%20Wage%20Theft%20Cases%20%28Sen.%20Glazer%29.pdf\">proposed audit (PDF)\u003c/a> into the backlog of wage-theft cases that is expected to begin in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez, a Democrat who represents parts of San Diego County, said he would communicate with the State Auditor’s Office to ensure they take into account the staffers’ concerns. The state needs to take a close look at how the hiring process and employee compensation can be improved, he said, so that vulnerable workers get timely decisions on their wage-theft claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t believe anyone should be waiting anywhere in the magnitude of years. That is not acceptable,” said Alvarez. “That is why we approved the audit … because everybody is concerned that workers are not getting their due pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Job vacancies of more than 30% at the Labor Commissioner's Office are exacerbating years-long waits for thousands of Californians to see their cases resolved.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1689724740,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":25,"wordCount":1259},"headData":{"title":"State Wage-Theft Investigators Say Staffing Crisis Is Hurting the Agency | KQED","description":"Job vacancies of more than 30% at the Labor Commissioner's Office are exacerbating years-long waits for thousands of Californians to see their cases resolved.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"State Wage-Theft Investigators Say Staffing Crisis Is Hurting the Agency","datePublished":"2023-07-18T22:13:25.000Z","dateModified":"2023-07-18T23:59:00.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/f593301a-eb8a-4ad9-a9df-b03f018a5271/audio.mp3","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11955920/california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>About 1 in 3 positions at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906889/california-workers-face-years-long-waits-for-justice-in-wage-theft-cases-state-data-shows\">California Labor Commissioner’s Office\u003c/a>, the agency tasked with investigating wage theft and other labor law violations, remain unfilled. The vacancy “crisis” is leading to burnout, low morale and the hemorrhaging of staffers, according to a letter by dozens of department employees obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as tens of thousands of Californians, who claim their employers shorted them on their paychecks, are forced to contend with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11913910/despite-record-budget-surplus-california-unlikely-to-fix-massive-wage-theft-claim-delays-anytime-soon\">massive delays\u003c/a> in seeing their cases resolved by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their letter, the nearly 80 rank-and-file employees of the Labor Commissioner’s Office implored lawmakers to address major barriers such as an “unreasonably slow” hiring process and low compensation, which they say prevent the agency from achieving a fully staffed department that can efficiently tackle the growing backlog of cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staffing vacancies have reached 30% to 40% in various units of the agency, they added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are failing in our mission if we cannot hire and retain the necessary staff,” they wrote. “The high vacancy rate naturally leads to higher caseloads, additional work responding to members of the public inquiring about the status of their claims, lower morale due to historic backlogs and increased stress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The July 9 message to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee offers a rare behind-the-scenes perspective of agency employees who are struggling to respond to an increasing volume of new wage-theft complaints exacerbated by hundreds of unfilled positions the state has budgeted for.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The high vacancy rate naturally leads to higher caseloads, additional work responding to members of the public inquiring about the status of their claims, lower morale due to historic backlogs and increased stress.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Joint statement, California Labor Commissioner’s Office employees","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner employees requested an audit focusing on how to make salaries at their agency more competitive — and how to fix a “crippling inability” to hire and retain staff by the California Human Resources Department (CalHR) and human resources at the Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State government tends to offer lower wages when compared to the private sector, while hiring tends to be slower as well, according to experts. But salaries at the Labor Commissioner’s Office lag by nearly 30% compared to public-sector peers, said the employees, and the hiring process is so slow and inefficient that qualified candidates end up taking jobs elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those inefficiencies include making candidates apply multiple times for the same job after CalHR or the Department of Industrial Relations decides a new job posting is required, said the staffers, who include hearing officers, attorneys and investigators throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All those hoops constitute extra work for Labor Commissioner employees, too. They worried that sometimes the HR departments decide “ … after our staff [spends] countless hours interviewing and vetting candidates, that the candidates … from the list HR itself provided, do not meet minimum qualifications for the positions,” the letter stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Over 200 vacant positions\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Nearly 240 positions were vacant at the Labor Commissioner’s Office in May 2022, according to public testimony by agency officials. Even in years when Gov. Gavin \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11913910/despite-record-budget-surplus-california-unlikely-to-fix-massive-wage-theft-claim-delays-anytime-soon\">Newsom proposed expanding the agency’s budget\u003c/a> to hire more employees, the agency remained severely understaffed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Industrial Relations did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for CalHR said the department is trying to improve the hiring process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CalHR is working on a number of strategies to help eliminate barriers to hiring and retaining employees,” said Camille Travis, deputy director of communications at CalHR, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They include the Work for California recruitment campaign which kicked off in February, increasing the number of hiring events with our department partners (virtual and in-person), and improvements to CalCareers that will make it easier for candidates to navigate the state hiring process,” Travis wrote.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11944515","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/CMWorkers01-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s wage claim process was created as a faster and free alternative for workers who lack the resources to hire an attorney and pursue their claim in court. Many of the workers who seek help from the state agency are living paycheck to paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers rights advocates and labor officials agree that the longer a wage claim languishes without resolution, the harder it tends to be for workers who win their cases to ultimately recover any money. That’s in part because many businesses close, go bankrupt or move assets to avoid paying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But workers are often forced to wait years before receiving a hearing and a final decision from the state on their wage-theft cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of May 2022, about half of the 36,000 pending claims for unpaid wages at the agency had taken longer than a year to resolve, according to Labor Commissioner figures obtained and analyzed by KQED. Nearly 4,000 of those cases had languished for three years or more.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘I feel betrayed’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Landscaper Juan Carlos Alas has yet to receive a final decision on the complaint he began with the Labor Commissioner’s Office in September 2020, after his employer filed for bankruptcy and failed to pay him and co-workers the last of their wages. The father of two said he fell behind on rent payments and bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was hard because we needed the money they stole from us,” said Alas, 36, who lives in Redwood City. “If we work, we have the right to get paid for that work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But collecting any of the $22,000 in unpaid wages, overtime and penalties Alas claims may now be “difficult if not impossible,” said Jennifer Smith, Alas’ attorney at the nonprofit Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. The defendant has since moved away and can’t be located, she said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I feel betrayed. We trusted California’s laws, and up to now, we haven’t seen any results.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Juan Carlos Alas, landscaper","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The nearly three-year wait has frustrated Alas, who argues the agency is supposed to help workers like him gain some justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel betrayed,” said Alas, who is originally from El Salvador. “We trusted California’s laws, and up to now, we haven’t seen any results.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Assemblymember David Alvarez, told KQED the Labor Commissioner employee letter was “alarming” and that staffers’ concerns would inform a \u003ca href=\"https://legaudit.assembly.ca.gov/sites/legaudit.assembly.ca.gov/files/2023-104%20%20California%20Labor%20Commissioner%E2%80%99s%20Office%E2%80%94Backlog%20of%20Wage%20Theft%20Cases%20%28Sen.%20Glazer%29.pdf\">proposed audit (PDF)\u003c/a> into the backlog of wage-theft cases that is expected to begin in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez, a Democrat who represents parts of San Diego County, said he would communicate with the State Auditor’s Office to ensure they take into account the staffers’ concerns. The state needs to take a close look at how the hiring process and employee compensation can be improved, he said, so that vulnerable workers get timely decisions on their wage-theft claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t believe anyone should be waiting anywhere in the magnitude of years. That is not acceptable,” said Alvarez. “That is why we approved the audit … because everybody is concerned that workers are not getting their due pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11955920/california-wage-theft-investigators-staffing-crisis","authors":["8659"],"categories":["news_31795","news_8"],"tags":["news_20904","news_18538","news_30731","news_26334","news_27626","news_32378","news_21308","news_2474","news_18208"],"featImg":"news_11955918","label":"news"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. 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