Three more garment manufacturers in Southern California have been named for violating labour standards, as part of a wider investigation by the US Department of Labor that has found $1.6m in back wages and liquidated damages due to 1,377 garment industry workers since January.
The amounts have resulted from violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) found in 94% of 129 ‘Wage and Hour Division’ investigations by the US Department of Labor of garment facilities in the region over the past year.
The damages and back wages are due to 1,377 garment industry employees and form part of an investigation that also assessed an additional $36,000 in civil money penalties.
Many of the investigations found employees were paid well below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, with some receiving as little as $4.27 per hour. Investigators also found employers often failed to pay overtime at time-and-one-half of their regular rates of pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a week, as required by the FLSA.
“In addition to our outreach efforts in this industry, we continue our investigations in Southern California to ensure local garment employees receive their rightfully earned pay,” said Ruben Rosalez, wage and hour division regional administrator in San Francisco. “Unfortunately, we continue to find wage violations at nine out of every ten facilities we investigate. Manufacturers that fail to pay their employees minimum wage and overtime have a negative impact on the garment industry by unfairly undercutting their competition.”
Of the companies found to have violated labour standards, CAL TM Inc will pay $41,742 to 46 employees after an investigation found that workers were not paid overtime and in many cases earned less than the federal minimum wage. Records were falsified to make it appear that employees were paid hourly.
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By GlobalDataANC Fashion Inc will pay $64,906 to 269 employees after employees were found to have worked over 40 hours per week without receiving overtime pay.
While HJ Fashion will disburse $21,023 to 21 workers after failing to pay them the federal minimum wage and overtime. Investigators also found the employer kept no time records and paid employees in cash only.
Department officials says they continue to meet with retailers to encourage them to avoid non-compliant manufacturers and to buy only from suppliers that comply with federal labour laws.
In October, 14 Los Angeles-based garment manufacturers and contractors were fined $372,135 for labour law and garment registration violations – and over $100,000 in illegally manufactured garments confiscated.
Los Angeles garment makers fined for labour law violations
