you guys a story. in 2008, in april, 24 workers came to us to complain about their wages. the employer owed them two months of unpaid wages. there are five owners who own the restaurant. the restaurant actually closed already. we help the workers filed claims. but the process took a very long time.

so there is not enough pressure on employers. employers use these loopholes to escape the law. after two years, this year, finally, the city got the employer to call them to go to a hearing. so all this time the employer has been ignoring the city. right before the hearing, the

lawyers said, "let's settle." so, in the final settlement, the agreement seems to be it will take two years for the payment plan to complete. so it is going to be around $40,000. because the process took so long, a lot of workers just dropped out. so the workers are taking more than two years to get their wages back, but can the workers wait two years to pay their rent?

we are not saying the olc is not doing their job. we are saying the law needs to be enforced aggressively. so we want the law to be enforced effectively. we do not want to have to waste 108 days for workers to get their money back, to get their judgment. chairperson campos: thank you. >> we want to resolve the issue in one year. chairperson campos: thank you very much. thank you. next speaker.

>> my name is johannes iwjaya. i am also a victim of which the act. -- of wage theft. in 2008, i started working for a sushi food-service company. my job is to deliver the sushi. i deliver sushi to different areas, including san francisco, berkeley, and alameda. a lot of times, i deliver to san francisco.

for the time i'm in san francisco, they did not pay me san francisco minimum wage. for my overtime, i had to repair the truck, maintain the truck. all this overtime was not paid for.

first, i went to the labor commission. they do not have bilingual staff, so they referred me to cba. with the help of cpa, we were able to resolve my problem. and my employer decided to settle. and i got my minimum wage and overtime. chairperson campos: thank you very much. next speaker. >> good afternoon.

my name is norma sanchez. i am here to speak on the issue of wage theft. i have been a worker for over 10 years at a restaurant in san francisco. in one case, accessing my right to paid lift -- paid sick leave, i went from having a

five-day workweek to only having two days. this particular case was an emergency were ahead to take care of my children. my employer told me if i had to take paid state -- had to take paid sick leave, i should stay home with my children and not work those days. so i am here to ask you all to please join us in putting an end to wage theft.

employers apply their own laws and do not follow the labor laws here in san francisco. i am a working mother. i have a family to provide for. with this retaliation from employers not enforcing our rights, it is not acceptable. so paid sick leave is actually the law. for them to retaliate against us is unjust.

i am not just talking about my own rights, but also the rights of my co-workers, who sometimes cannot speak up, and for workers in communities across the country. chairperson campos: thank you. next speaker, please. >> i am also here bahau it -- here on behalf of young workers united.

i am also here to speak out. i was retaliated against also. i went from being full time to a part-time employee. i feel i was discriminated against because of my age and my abilities, because i do not have the capabilities of a younger worker. i was retaliated against for taking paid sick time, which i

did not get paid for. on the contrary, the hired somebody else and let me go. it seems to be a habit with a lot of these employers to exploit workers across different industries and across the city. it does not seem fair to me, being in this country where it is supposed to be a fair democracy. thank you for the meetings and

hearings you guys have held on tv. so i also want to commend you guys for taking some stance on some good issues. the other thing is you guys here at the city have a tool with investigation of workplaces. but it seems the focus has usually just then on the health and safety of the food.

it is a good thing today that there is more collaboration and they are starting to ask also about the safe -- the safety and health of the workers and if they are facing exploitation in the workplace. also give a score for responsible employers. chairperson campos: thank you. next speaker. thank you.

>> i am a restaurant worker. i have been in the united states for four years. i have worked many jobs in the united states. i never got minimum wage. we never had benefits. one of those jobs, i was working in a restaurant. they owed us workers many months of unpaid wages. for me, it was only a few weeks. it was over $1,000 in wages.

we chased after the employers for over two years, and i have not gotten a penny. most of my co-workers were owed way more than me. my employer ran away. the olsc decided to drop the case. it is hard for us without our wages to survive. we hope that you will support our campaign, and we hope the city can't act now.

-- can act now. chairperson campos: thank you. next speaker. >> i am the director of the san francisco day laborer program. i represent day laborers. to a small and limited degree, states have a common practice of stealing wages from day laborers. in august 2005, the first job i acquired by standing on a mission. i was a student and needed money for books. i was picked up at six o'clocks 30 in the morning. after eight hours of work, with my hands full of bleeding blisters, my employer promised me she would hire me the next day and pay me the next day. the next morning, i waited at the specified corner on top of a fire hydrant.

six minutes later, i was pacing on the sidewalk. 20 minutes later, i was cursing myself for not getting the license plate number. i was enraged. but the only thing i could do was hoping i could see that blue truck coming down the street. i want you to imagine the anger, the frustration, the hopelessness that i felt. multiplied this anger by weeks and even months of other workers not getting paid. this is for weeks and months on and, which is the case of a lot of delivers. i was extremely lucky that after an hour of waiting the employer did show up and gave me the $100 he owed the. most workers, especially day laborers, are not as lucky. that is why we need the cities

-- the city to work with the community to stop wage theft. chairperson campos: thank you. next speaker. >> i want to thank the supervisors for listening to my stories. i used to work for kola. i experienced workplace injuries. because of that, my employer fired me. but it is very illegal.

on top of that, they did not pay me my paid sick leave. it is not just me. my co-workers also urged me to tell you supervisors about this. we want the city to help us. because a lot of people have not been paid their paid sick leave. and so i can seek justice. i can have justice. thank you.

[applause] >> good afternoon, everybody. i was working at a restaurant. chairperson campos: speak into

the microphone, please. >> i was working at a restaurant and fired me. i was working long hours, getting paid low wages. they still fired me. they did not pay my last track. = = a -- my last check.

i can understand why some employers would pay lower wages than what are required. unfortunately, i did not even get paid the wages of was agreed to get paid. i work. i work hard. i appreciate the help of the city.

i came to the office. my case is in process. thank you. chairperson campos: i wanted to make sure he had gone through the olac. thank you. >> [speaking spanish] >> my name is isabella. i would like to thank the young workers united.

thanks to the young workers united, i found the olsc > i was working 10 hours a day, receiving $50 for that work. in addition, i was discriminated against. ultimately, i lost my job. that brought me to the office. they claim has been resolved. i appreciate that. thank you. chairperson campos: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am with the chinese

progressive association. in march 2010, over a year ago, 14 workers came to cpa asking for help. they said they had not been paid three to 10 months of wages. they also said there was minimum wage violation. some of them were paid as low as $4 per hour. we found out this restaurant, located in chinatown -- we found out this restaurant is a repeated violator. only three years prior, the olsc caught this employer and made them pay the workers. after a month of collective action with the workers, we are going to meet up with cpa and members of the board of supervisors. we finally put pressure on the employer, who paid back with the workers were promised, $5 an

hour. we encourage the workers to continue with minimum wage claims of the can get $9.79 per hour. however, most of the workers were afraid of continuing the claim. for those who did consider continuing the claim, they were retaliated against. earlier this year, the employer went to the workers' current jobs and also called the workers at 1:00 at night, telling them they needed to withdraw their minimum wage claims. this also affects the housing situation for the workers. one of the workers can only afford to live in the garage of one of her relatives. it looks like, "you are bringing trouble home. i am going to could do -- kick you out of my house." they are still looking for housing. neither her or her husband has been able to find a job right

now. the olsc has not yet assessed a penalty against the employer. this sends a message to abusive employers that i can retaliate against workers and do not have to pay a penny. this is allowed in san francisco. we hope that enforcement can be effective and workers are protected. supervisor mar: thank you for relaying this important case. was this the great oriental restaurant case? >> yes. supervisor mar: can you comment on the actions once the employer was retaliating? how did olsc staff respond and what should be done to improve the system for worker justice? >> to my knowledge, they spoke to the employer and the employers said, "i will not do it again." so far, no penalty has been assessed for the employer.

i think we need to suspend the penalties and be more aggressive about it. the employer can appeal and start having a 10-day grace period to do whatever he wants. after he resolve the issue, meaning he promised to not retaliate again, so far no penalty has been assessed. chairperson campos: next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am arlene tran. i have taught esl and citizenship to many limited english speakers in san francisco. i have heard enough of worker rights abuses. i am here to support them. the good as the problem of wage that is finally coming to the attention of the board of supervisors to the advocacy of many grass-roots organizations