The Labor Justice Unit filed seven felony charges against two garment business owners for allegedly paying workers as little as $6 an hour and failing to provide overtime.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily morning newsletter, How To LA. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news.Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón on Wednesday announced a new round of wage theft related charges and a new unit to target labor violations.
"We have a pattern of one or two workers speaking up and filing a claim with my office and the employer resolving that claim," she said."At that point, that employer understood that how they were operating their business was illegal — against the law — and they had the opportunity to come into compliance, but they failed to do so."Garcia-Brower says there are more than 30,000 workers in the garment industry.
"An industry that is rampant of violations, that is predominantly women workers, immigrants who do not speak English, who speak Spanish and other Asian languages," she said."We now have a growth of Indigenous workers speaking Indigenous languages."According to Gascón, wage theft occurs when employers deny workers their rightful wages, benefits, or overtime pay.
"Studies estimate that billions of dollars are stolen from workers each year through wage theft, making it a significant economic concern," he said in a statement."Wage theft can take various forms, such as unpaid overtime, minimum wage violations, illegal deductions, misclassification of employees as independent contractors, and denial of benefits.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Judges reject Alabama's new congressional district map after lawmakers exclude 2nd Black majority districtFederal judges for a U.S. District Court in Alabama ruled against state lawmakers and rejected their congressional district that only included one Black-majority district.
Read more »
Harris County assistant district attorney arrested over incident at bar on Labor DayAuthorities said the prosecutor became belligerent at a bar with a deputy working security. He faces a misdemeanor charge, but his employment depends on District Attorney Kim Ogg.
Read more »
Violent Labor Day weekend sees 7 killed in D.C.Seven people were gunned down throughout the District of Columbia during the Labor Day weekend.
Read more »
Organized labor feels strong this Labor DayThe original goal of Labor Day was to honor organized labor and what it contributes to our economy and our society and on Labor Day 2023, members of organized labor can look back on a very busy year.
Read more »
Ross: Exercising my Labor muscles this Labor DayLabor Day was founded to celebrate the labor movement, I’ll leave you to look up the history.
Read more »
Unions continue to drain America's economic potentialLabor Day might have passed, but problems related to labor deserve sustained attention.
Read more »