Congratulations to the UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic and the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center!

LONG BEACH, Calif. Eighteen hotel employees reached a $130,000 settlement with HEI Hotels and Resorts over denial of meal and rest breaks required by California law. The settlement arose from claims filed with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement by employees of the Hilton Long Beach and Executive Meeting Center, owned and managed by HEI.

In hearings before the Labor Commissioner, workers described facing direct pressure from supervisors to work through meals and to skip rest breaks to keep up with increasingly heavy workloads. Some employees suffered injuries due to the unremitting nature of their work. Employees in the hotel’s kitchen, restaurant, room service, banquet services and housekeeping departments stepped forward to participate in the legal action. Most of the workers are “back of the house” monolingual Spanish speakers.

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers | State Departments of Labor | Wage Theft

LOS ANGELES – Workers representing four links in Walmart’s global supply chain – food production, processing, warehousing and retail – today filed a formal ethics complaint with Walmart’s corporate executives in Los Angeles. The complaint outlines systemic violations of Walmart’s own Statement of Ethics and Standards for Suppliers.

Standing in front of the proposed site of a Walmart store in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, workers and supporters described working conditions that include enslavement, injury, hazardous equipment, retaliatory firings and chemical exposure in the production, transport and sale of Walmart merchandise.

“This is a pattern. No matter the country, no matter the workplace, no matter the worker, we see that Walmart and its contractors’ deny responsibility, ignore serious problems and fire workers who stand up for change. This behavior should not be rewarded with more stores,” said Guadalupe Palma, a campaign director with Warehouse Workers United, an organization committed to improving warehousing jobs in the Inland Empire.

FILED UNDER: Enforcement of Workplace Standards | Support for Wage Campaigns by Worker Centers and Unions | Immigrant Workers | Wage Theft | Worker Centers

UAW, Coalition Commit to Overturning Alabama’s Immigration Law [Detroit News] 

Law Giving Domestic Workers More Rights Slow to Take Hold [WNYC]

Alabama Law Becomes Even More Anti-Immigrant While Doing Nothing To Create Jobs [HuffPost] 

Unwelcome Guests: Work Visa Programs Cheat Global Labor, Build Global Capital [In These Times]

Workplace Whistleblower Gets Temporary Deportation Reprieve [HuffPost] 

Mexican Guest Workers Claim Wal-Mart Supplier Stole Their Wages [International Business Times]

FILED UNDER: Domestic/Homecare Workers | Guestworkers | Immigrant Workers | Immigration | Immigration Reform | Wage Theft

Oakland, CA—A new report released today by the National Employment Law Project shows that the subcontracting practices of retail giants like Walmart are contributing to rampant workplace violations—including health, safety, and wage-and-hour abuses—affecting thousands of workers who load and unload consumer goods at the nation’s largest distri­bution hubs. 

The report presents the latest evidence that Walmart, facing increasing scrutiny from federal lawsuits and government investigations, bears direct ties to and control over the subcontractors and third-party employers that handle much of the company’s domestically outsourced work.

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers | Low-Wage Workers | Wage Theft

San Francisco, CA –On Tuesday, June 5th, 2012, in a rare unanimous 11-0 vote, the Board of Supervisors approved the creation of a Wage Theft Task Force in a meeting attended by dozens of low-wage workers, advocates and community members. Co-authored by Sup. David Campos and Eric Mar in partnership with OLSE, community and legal advocates, this legislation continues the momentum of last year’s unanimous passage of the Wage Theft Prevention Ordinance.

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers | Wage Theft