Former Renee Strauss Employee Demands Overtime Pay
Ana Celia Romauldo, a former employee of Renee Strauss for the Bride in Beverly Hills, Calif., held a press conference May 2 to call public attention to the celebrity bridal shop’s refusal to pay her for excessive overtime and penalties totaling over $22,000.
Romauldo was joined by Joann Lo, organizer for Los Angeles-based Garment Worker’s Center, and Victor Narro, Worker’s Rights Project director of Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) in front of Renee Strauss’ retail shop in Beverly Hills.
Romauldo, who worked for Renee Strauss since March of 1998, said she regularly worked more than 40 hours per week, and more than eight hours in a day. California labor laws mandate overtime pay at a rate of one and one half times the regular pay for those excesses. The same laws mandate double time for more than 12 hours in one day.
A copy of a paycheck for Romauldo, which Lo identified as typical, demonstrated a flat rate of $6.50 per hour for a week with 123 hours.
Romauldo said that she did everything from fitting dresses to cleaning the store, picking up Strauss’ children from school and cleaning Strauss’ home during 12- to 13-hour days without overtime pay and often without breaks.
“I would be taking my lunch and [Quan] would call me to work downstairs. I would tell her that I need to take my lunch, but she would say that I still needed to work,” Romauldo said in Spanish, interpreted by Lo.
Romauldo said that the ordeal has negatively affected her health and forced her to terminate her position at Renee Strauss in January of this year.
Narro said such abuses were common in the garment industry, adding, “It’s not that Renee Strauss is going out of business. It’s not that she can’t pay, she won’t pay.”
Narro said in communicating directly with Strauss on Romauldo’s behalf that she admitted to being in violation but would not make the necessary corrections, telling him that her policy is to pay straight-pay only, with no provision for overtime compensation.
“At first, Ms. Strauss denied that Ms. Romauldo ever worked overtime,” Narro said. “Then she finally admitted through her lawyer that she does owe some money to Ms. Romauldo, but so far she has refused to pay.”
Romauldo, a natural citizen of El Salvador in this country on a work visa, is applying for permanent residency status and said that she believes she is being taken advantage of because of her status as a non-permanent resident of the United States and the fact that she doesn’t speak English fluently.
Strauss’ clients include Heather Locklear, Raquel Welch and television shows such as “ER” and “NYPD Blue,” according to a press release issued by the Garment Workers Center and CHIRLA. Strauss refused calls, and while on the phone during the press conference, requested through store employees that this reporter leave the premises.
CHIRLA is a non-profit organization founded in 1986 to advance the human and civil rights of immigrants and refugees in Los Angeles. The Garment Worker’s Center opened in January of this year to provide a space for garment workers to organize and stop sweatshop abuses in the garment industry in the Los Angeles area.
