Former Workers File Suit Against Jeff Hamilton Industries
Los Angeles-based Bet Tzedek Legal Services has filed a complaint against Jeff Hamilton Industries in Los Angeles Superior Court, charging that the manufacturer of branded sports apparel failed to pay minimum wage and overtime pay, according to the Garment Worker Center in downtown Los Angeles.
Plaintiffs Martin Lopez Chias and Alejandro Varela filed a claim on April 24 alleging that the company required them to work shifts in excess of 12 hours in a single time period without adequate breaks and neglected to pay for overtime.
The complaint also alleges that the company falsified records in order to cover up proof of violations, according to Cassy Stubbs, an attorney at Bet Tzedek Legal Services who is representing Chias and Varela.
Stubbs estimates that her clients are owed about $55,000 in combined back wages from overtime work and the company’s failure to meet minimum wage standards on paychecks that were supposed to include overtime wages.
Company owner Jeff Hamilton, who held an exclusive license for the GUESS? Jeans line for men in the mid-1980s, denies the charges against him.“Several of my employees have been with me for many years, and they’re not underpaid,” Hamilton said.
One former longtime employee has also filed an administrative complaint against the company. Mauro Tapia was employed at Jeff Hamilton Industries for 10 years before he quit last June. However, according to a release statement provided by the company, Mauro resumed his employment with the company several months later.
Joanne Lo, an organizer at the Garment Worker Center who will represent Tapia in the hearing, said the worker is owed about $28,826 in damages and overtime wages. Tapia’s claim will be taken into consideration during a hearing with Labor Commissioner Anne Lee in June.
Hamilton said the chances of his company offering a settlement to the workers are slim.
“I am a man of principle, and this is extortion. I’ve worked too hard over the years to have a clean reputation, and then to have it taken away from me out of greed,” he said.
