DIRTY LABOR PRACTICES UNCOVERED JANITORIAL COMPANY AGREES TO MAKE UP WORKERS' LOST WAGES.Byline: Staff and Wire Services NEWHALL - Janitors contracted by retail giant Target Corp. through a local janitorial firm that came under a federal probe said they were forced to work nearly 365 days a year without overtime pay. ``In my three years there, they gave me very few days off,'' according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Felipe Aguilar Felipe Aguilar (born November 7, 1974) is a Chilean professional golfer. Aguilar is currently a member of the Challenge Tour. In 2006 he became the second Chilean, after Roy Mackenzie to earn full membership to the European Tour. , who said he cleaned at five Target stores in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, for Global Building Services. ``And when I came back after being out injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. for two weeks, the company said, We can't take you back. Someone else is working in your place.'' These janitors in six states - including 600 in California - were vindicated earlier this week after the Newhall-based janitorial contractor agreed to pay $1.9 million in lost wages to 775 employees who were short overtime pay following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation and nearly two years of negotiations. Compensation for the mostly Latino workers ranges from $34 to more than $5,500, labor officials said. A Los Angeles-based janitorial watchdog group, Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, tipped off federal regulators to possible violations by Global Building Services after conducting its own probe of 50 Target stores in July 2002. ``It's definitely rewarding to bring any positive resolution to any of our cases,'' Lilia Garcia, that organization's executive director, said Thursday. ``Unfortunately, this is one of dozens and dozens of cases that we have.'' Garcia said her group also found that a half-dozen of the late-night cleaners were just 15 or 16 years old. She said Global Building Services fired them soon after the federal investigation started largely because state law bars teenagers so young from working so late at night and so many hours a day or week. ``Workers have rights despite their immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. status,'' she said. ``We want to raise the bar and abolish illegal business practices within the industry.'' Aguilar said he worked about 80 hours a week, from approximately 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily, and was paid $525 or $625 every 15 days. That came to less than $4 an hour, well below the federal minimum wage of $5.15. His wife, Claudia, who also worked at Target, said, ``We felt bad about the pay, sometimes we felt rage, but we were scared to complain because we needed the job.'' Besides overtime wages, the company, which paid in cash, often withheld paying into Social Security and other tax funds, said Deanne Amaden, a Labor Department The Department of Labor (DOL) administers federal labor laws for the Executive Branch of the federal government. Its mission is "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working spokeswoman. ``We want to make sure it's a level playing field See net neutrality. for the folks who comply with the law,'' she said. Amaden said the janitorial firm, which also operates in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico New Mexico, state in the SW United States. At its northwestern corner are the so-called Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet at right angles; New Mexico is also bordered by Oklahoma (NE), Texas (E, S), and Mexico (S). , Nevada and Louisiana, has been cooperative with authorities in resolving the case. The company said in a statement released Wednesday that it is now ``fully compliant'' with labor laws labor law, legislation dealing with human beings in their capacity as workers or wage earners. The Industrial Revolution, by introducing the machine and factory production, greatly expanded the class of workers dependent on wages as their source of income. . Target itself was not under investigation, Amaden said. The Valencia store was among those under contract with the janitorial firm. ``Target does not tolerate unethical unethical said of conduct not conforming with professional ethics. business practices in any form, including on the part of our vendors,'' the company said in a statement Wednesday. ``We are in the process of collecting more information and will be taking appropriate action.'' Still, more needs to be done to police the cleaning industry, Garcia said. ``The reality is the cleaning industry is like a candy store,'' she said. ``You can pick any building and nine times out of 10 you can find dirty practices.'' |
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