Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Two owners of a South Los Angeles garment company have been charged with allegedly failing to pay wages owed to their employees, the Los Angeles County District Attorney announced Wednesday.
In a statement, the prosecution said investigations showed that sewing business owners paid employees two-thirds below the Los Angeles minimum wage for years.
The defendants were identified as Soon Ae Park and Lawrence Gi Lee, who allegedly paid as little as $6 an hour to at least 18 employees for three yearsin addition to the fact that they did not consider the payment of overtime, despite the fact that they worked 55 hours a week, as mentioned in the prosecution’s accusation.
Keep reading: Inglewood car wash workers report $1 million wage theft
Wage theft is billions of dollars a year that are lost, and not only for workers, but also in terms of tax collection.
“It occurs when employers deny workers their rightful wages, benefits or overtime, or engage in other illegal practices to underpay or exploit their employees,” the prosecution said in a statement.
“Studies estimate that billions of dollars are stolen from workers each year through wage theft, making it a major economic concern,” he added.
The prosecution said that wage theft can take various forms, such as unpaid overtime, minimum wage violations, illegal deductions, misclassification of employees as independent contractors, and denial of benefits.
“When an employer steals your wages, it affects the worker and everyone, because they are not paying taxes,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.
The prosecutor said his office projects expand efforts so that the necessary punishments can be applied to abusive companies with this type of practice.
“We are creating a new unit, the first unit to deal with wage theft,” Gascón reported.
Keep reading: The owner of a restaurant in Los Angeles must pay $1.6 million in back wages and damages to his employees
The prosecution said that Los Angeles County’s diverse workforce, made up of documented and undocumented workers, is particularly vulnerable to exploitation and wage theft due to language barriers, limited knowledge of labor rights, and fear of retaliation.
In late 2021, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the California Labor Commissioner signed an agreement to strengthen the investigation and prosecution of wage theft.
With the creation of the new unit, various charges were released against Soon Ae Park and Lawrence Gi Lee.. The prosecutor’s office said that it is a recurring problem that occurs in many industries, after complaints filed by affected workers in previous years.
Keep reading: Los Angeles janitors, victims of wage theft for years, received payments for back wages
Soon Ae Park, 64, is charged with two felony counts of grand theft of two different employees’ wages exceeding $950.one count of perjury by statement, and one count of procuring and offering false or counterfeit instruments.
Lawrence Gi Lee, 68, is charged with three counts of perjury by statement.
In 2018, Park and Lee agreed to pay severance payments to former workers for underpaying them. After paying off the settlements, Park and Lee allegedly perjured their Garment Manufacturers and Contractors Registration applications al claims they had not been cited or resolved a labor code violation for unpaid wages by the Department of Industrial Relations.
The authorities pointed out that after the investigation, the intention is to restore the salary owed to the affected workers.
“For our entire working class community, regardless of immigration status, everyone has the right. Their work must be paid and without fear of retaliation,” said California labor commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower.
To report wage theft and file a complaint, you can call 833-526-4636.
Keep reading:
· More strikes by workers in Los Angeles
They seek to protect workers who suffer reprisals for reporting abuses
· They recover wages of immigrant agricultural workers: they were paid with Mexican pesos