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San Francisco Restaurant Workers Win $85,000 Wage Settlement
Alex Tom
2/23/07
San Francisco--Last week upon the Chinese New Year holiday,
seven former King Tin Restaurant workers joined with the Chinese Progressive
Association (CPA), community supporters and representatives from San Francisco's
Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) and City Attorney’s
Office to celebrate a groundbreaking economic justice victory. At media
event at CPA's office, checks ranging from $8,000 to $23,000 were distributed
to the workers, all monolingual Chinese-speaking immigrants, providing
them with a combined $85,000 in back wages and interest owed to them
by the restaurant since 2004. The case is the first involving legal action
by the City to enforce San Francisco's Minimum Wage Ordinance, and it
highlights the need for strong collaboration between community based
worker centers and government agencies to ensure justice for society's
most marginalized and exploited workers.
Known as one of the oldest and most popular restaurants in San Francisco
Chinatown for over twenty years, King Tin Restaurant abruptly closed
in July 2004 and filed for bankruptcy after workers organized and contacted
state labor officials about months of unpaid wages. On average, workers
labored for over 55 hours a week at sub-minimum wages with no breaks,
overtime, paid sick leave, health insurance or other benefits. In some
of the most severe cases, dishwashers and janitors worked up to 105 hours
a week, 15 hours a day and 7 days a week with no mealtime and/or breaks
for what amounted to barely $3.00 per hour.
In the July of 2004, King Tin Restaurant workers were unpaid for up to
two months. After the fed up and desperate workers demanded their wages,
contacted state labor officials and organized a press conference with
the Chinese media, the two employers Kai Yuen Ng and Kem Guang Tang eventually
paid the back wages. During that time, CPA educated the workers about
wage and hours laws, and many of the workers discovered that the back
wages they received were far below San Francisco's new higher minimum
wage standard and also in violation of State overtime law. CPA and the
Asian Law Caucus assisted the workers to file wage claims with the local
and state labor agencies.
For the last two plus years, CPA supported and organized the workers
to claim the full compensation owed to them by their former employers.
The workers' campaign was made more difficult when King Tin Restaurant
closed down and the owners filed for bankruptcy protection, a common
occurrence among Chinatown businesses that owe back wages to workers.
Federal bankruptcy law places workers' wage claims at a lower priority
than debts owed to "secured" creditors such as banks and the
Internal Revenue Service, effectively killing most wage claims filed
through the State Labor Commissioner's office. Despite the King Tin bankruptcy
filing, CPA and the workers organized a series of public actions to maintain
the visibility of this case, to ensure that local and state labor agencies
vigorously pursue the wage claims and, more broadly, to highlight the
need for stronger enforcement of labor laws.
In 2005, the State Labor Commission filed suit against Tang and Ng, as
part owners of the restaurant who were also in charge of its day-to-day
operations, for violations of state wage and hour laws. In coordination
with OLSE, the City Attorney filed a companion suit against the same
former owners seeking relief for the King Tin employees under the City's
Minimum Wage Ordinance. By September 2006, the City Attorney reached
an out of court wage settlement with the former employers for $85,000.
The King Tin settlement is a victory for all workers in the Chinese community
and a sign of hope for the future. Significantly, the outcome is a rare
example of holding individual owners accountable for the criminal labor
abuses of their bankrupt corporation. The persistence and active involvement
of the workers themselves throughout the two plus year campaign and the
diligence of OLSE and the City Attorney's Office in pursuing the wage
claims were keys to the positive outcome. Through this campaign CPA,
local government agencies and the King Tin workers forged an effective
collaboration to ensure justice.
Despite this victory, the King Tin case is just the tip of the iceberg – gross
violations of workers' rights are widespread in industries with a high
concentration of immigrant workers. To address the broader problem of
worker exploitation and prevent cases like King Tin from occurring in
the first place, CPA and a coalition of community and labor groups recently
worked with Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and the Board of Supervisors and
the Mayor's Office to pass Minimum Wage Enforcement legislation which
strengthened the powers of OLSE, increased wage enforcement staffing
and created a new worker outreach program. CPA looks forward to building
on the King Tin victory and the City's increased wage enforcement capacity
to step up our efforts at ensuring justice and dignity for exploited
workers in the coming months and years.
*****
Support CPA's progressive organizing and alliance building work!
through web donations or mailed to:
Chinese Progressive Association
1042 Grant Avenue, 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94133
Tel: (415) 391-6986
Fax: (415) 391-6987
Email: justice@cpasf.org
Web: www.cpasf.org
