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Common Violations Found in L.A. Garment Factories

Paying sub-minimum wages and and denying breaks are just two of the ways that garment facory owners violate workers' rights.

1. Failure to pay minimum wage and overtime
  • Piece rate not adjusted for minimum wage
  • Piece rate adjusted arbitrarily
  • Some work “doesn’t count” (repairs, small operations, etc.)
  • Flat hourly rate without overtime
  • Forced overtime
  • Flat fee for work done at home
  • Hours distributed over pay period to avoid overtime


2. Failure to provide breaks
  • Meal break not at 4 hour intervals
  • Meal break less than ˝ hour
  • Failure to inform workers about 10 minute rest breaks
  • Discouragement from workers taking 10 minute rest breaks


3. Incomplete or fraudulent record keeping
  • Time cards punched by employer/manager/worker at wrong hours; workers forced to sign
  • Electronic record keeping adjusts hours to fit legal wages
  • No piece rate/hourly rate/number of hours worked indicated
  • Name of manufacturers not on pay stub
  • No written contract between manufacturers and contractors
  • Workers not told name of employer, business
  • Failure to pay correct payroll taxes, workers’ compensation premiums, etc.


4. Problems with payment
  • Workers paid in cash, no receipt given
  • Workers paid with personal check
  • Workers paid with “voucher” to be cashed at particular liquor store or cashing facility
  • Workers paid partly with company check, partly in cash/personal check
  • Workers paid with checks that bounce
  • Workers paid irregularly
  • Workers required to purchase tools and machine parts
  • “Deposit” held for 1-2 weeks
  • No itemized wage deduction statement issued
  • Deductions made but pocketed by employer
  • Workers paid under different “businesses”


5. Strategies to avoid liability
  • Locking workers in factory, closing off windows and doors
  • Sending workers away when inspectors come
  • Refusing to allow inspectors into factory
  • “Staging” conditions for monitors (including choosing which workers can talk to monitors)
  • Closing business or switching business names, officers, factory locations, etc.
  • Lying about business relations between manufacturers and contractors, including existence of relationship, value and volume of contracts, etc.
  • Keeping two sets of records, or one fraudulent set; altering records
  • Failing to cooperate with DLSE investigations; lying in proceedings


6. Health and safety abuses
  • Fire hazards (blocked exits, loose wires)
  • Ventilation—heat stroke, respiratory ailments
  • Potable water
  • No place to eat, no microwave, no fridge, dirty eating area
  • No permission to use bathroom, dirty bathroom, no toilet paper, soap, water, etc.
  • Unguarded machines
  • No first aid attention
  • Firing injured workers
  • Ergonomic injuries
  • Rats, cockroaches, unsanitary conditions


7. Verbal, physical, and sexual abuse
  • Pressure, insults, threats, intimidation
  • Physical threats and attacks
  • Sexual harassment and abuse


8. Discrimination
  • Injured workers
  • Older workers
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity/race
  • Citizenship status/work authorization
  • Favoritism/relatives
  • Workers who talk back are “blacklisted”


9. Strategies to intimidate workers
  • Hiring preferences for undocumented workers
  • Hiring people form rural areas. less formal education, or those perceived to me “more docile”
  • Disciplining workers publicly to make an example for others
  • Threatening to report workers to police, immigration authorities, etc.
  • Threatening to fire workers or close factory
  • Threatening to blacklist workers; telling other employers to fire “troublemakers”
  • Failing to provide training for workers or to notify them about their rights
  • Failing to provide information in workers’ language