Workers' Concerns Trigger Secondary Sweeps
Nearly one month after their initial sweeps of garment manufacturers throughout California, state labor officials revisited 34 companies in downtown Los Angeles.
The first sweeps, which took place Aug. 2–5, targeted nearly 200 factories. State officials inspected payroll stubs, business licenses, employment records and working conditions to root out illegal contractors and sweatshops.
The latest sweep was conducted during the evening hours of Aug. 26 and during the day of Aug. 27, said Dean Fryer, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Industrial Relations. The previous sweeps had been held during normal business hours.
Workers and workers’ rights organizations, including the Garment Worker Center in downtown Los Angeles, complained that manufacturers were making employees work at night or were closing windows and doors to evade state inspectors.
“We were tipped off by workers that some companies were not complying with state regulations or were using scare tactics against their workers or changing their work hours to nights and weekends,” Fryer said.
The majority of companies targeted in the evening and weekend sweeps had been raided the first week of August, but a few manufacturers were visited after officials “stumbled upon them,” said Jehan Flagg, a spokesperson for the state’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency (LWDA).
The surprise visits found 20 companies in violation of labor and tax laws, yielding 44 citations totaling $210,300 in potential fines. Officials confiscated garments from seven manufacturers and closed 19 businesses for not having a current garment registration license or for failing to have workers’ compensation insurance. Factories were also cited for violations ranging from improper payment of overtime to failure to maintain itemized wage statements.
The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration participated in the sweeps and discovered 55 OSHA violations, 18 of which were classified as serious enough to cause great physical harm or the death of an employee, Fryer said.
OSHA found exits blocked and exit doors locked, making it impossible for workers to leave. Fines from the OSHA violations could total $98,500, Flagg said.
Investigations are continuing, but the LWDA expects violation citations to be issued soon.
Because the investigations are ongoing, state officials would not release the names of the companies involved in the sweeps.
The sweeps were led by the state’s recently formed Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition, which received $6.5 million in state funds this year to crack down on businesses operating illegally in seven industries.
State officials said this is not the last of the sweeps in the California garment industry. The sweeps are expected to continue at least through June 2006. —Erin Barajas
