training. i have asked my staff to start looking at the employee notification requirements and giving the employees notification requirements and making referrals when they are not placed. we have started requiring proof of workers' compensation insurance and other labor law requirements before we even give the permit. in a few cases, we have used armed force the authority to suspend the permit until the business complies with the olse requirements and sanctions. i think some of the next steps in improving our work, what --

how can we improve this? the training of the health inspectors, tracking chronic violations and considering violation history and issuing new permits. one of the loopholes and one of the way employers get around these is that they simply close down their shop. assuming businesses under a new form, even if bay are under an investigation. we are trying to track these owners. coordinating code enforcement can have the same chronic violations. thank you very much. >> i think we are fine. we appreciate all of the efforts by the department of public health and for your continued commitment to this issue. i would like to call on

christine from the district attorney's office. thank you for waiting patiently. she is the chief of staff to the district attorney. we want to hear directly from her on her office of's efforts on this issue. >> we have demonstrated part of our commitment by the time in the hearing room packed -- hearing room. i want to express our commitment to this issue and interest in pursuing these matters where appropriate in the criminal context. olse plays an important role in these matters. i have heard, as i have sat here listening to the other partner agencies, certain other ones that should have been sent to

our agency for prosecution or you have somebody contract in and receiving city dollars and not pay workers what they are due, in my opinion, that rises to a different level and requires more strict intervention. we have two resolve cases of wage theft. we have partnered very closely with the chinese progressive organization and we appreciate that partnership. the challenge that we have, we need a victim to come forward. that is often the largest impediment for our office to proceed on these matters. collaboration with city agencies and community organizations are necessary to augment the actions we're taking in these areas. they are the most vulnerable communities and they are often hesitant to reach out to law

forces -- law-enforcement are -- or are unaware of the resources available. i understand that supervisor mar and campos are contemplating a task force. inside of city government and outside of city government, we can understand where the zipper. matters are handed to us. theft is obviously a crime. grand theft is a felony. we are more than willing to do that. we have an assigned attorney that works on these matters. we also works on issues of human trafficking, not just sexual trafficking, but labor trafficking. we encourage everybody in the hearing with these issues to reach out to us.

we are an eager and willing partner to putting an end to this kind of conduct. >> thank you for being here. i was curious how you view how we should be pursuing cases as opposed to olse, as opposed to the city attorney's office. >> we have a case pending right now with allegations of felony grand theftand misuse of another person's contract in licensed. the day labor contract did were taken for their money. we also have the earlier cases that we have already settled, mostly focused on the theft issue. we are able to secure the restitution payments to the

workers that were defrauded. >> do you coordinate with other potential government agencies on various situations about whether you should take the case? i am wondering what kind of conversations happened. >> there is very little coordination. i was happy to hear the work that olse is doing. i have been in conversation with the police department. i reached out to express my interest in working with them. you have for my commitment to make those conversations happen. regardless of what actions you take, for we will make sure we are more coordinated with those agencies. if you have those employees that are taking four or five years to comply, that is where we should get involved. >> there seems to be a working group between the different government agencies or the

particularly bad actors. and there are more than one agency is bringing actions against them. that is bringing actions to the employment and that employer. >> the threat of criminal consequences as a way of moving people that civil consequences do not. we will sit down and meet and talk about those efforts. we will participate in the task force. you will have our commitment on the it. >> as far as following up on what the president was saying, my feeling on this is that this has to be a city-wide strategy. part of the strategy is olse. the strategy is provided for by the law. there are limitations on that. resources is a key limitation. even though perhaps only a few

cases will go to a hearing, i think that we should do better than five. having the city attorney and the district attorney involved, especially in those cases that are so egregious, it would be unjust to go through a five- year. -- five-year period before they are solved. action by the city attorney and the district attorney can send a very clear message that we are not going to tolerate that in the city and county. those recalcitrant employers not only have to contend with the processes in place, they also have to contend with the city attorney's office and the district attorney's office. that can serve as a very strong

deterrent to these kinds of actions not taking place. >> we had a recent case where the defendant received nine months in jail. this is a sanction that we can levy and have a fax on the community in general. most of their conduct is not rise to the level of criminality. >> there is that working groups. to figure route what cases that are currently pending might be appropriate for consideration by those offices. the fear is that if you wait too long, the employee might not be around anymore. that not only means that that worker is not going to get the wages that are owed to him or her, but that employer may exploit other workers down the road. >> thank you very much.

thank you for your patience. now we can hear from the police department. thank you for waiting patiently. if you could just briefly tell us what the police department is doing on this important issue. >> i am currently assigned to the vice crimes unit. in human trafficking investigations, wage theft is a central issue. it is almost essential to this -- establish the greater crime of human trafficking. we also see suggestions of similar problems in inspections we do in massage parlors. we have recently established a recentlywith olse. we have established protocols as

to how we can reciprocally help each other in our investigation. when we get an allegation of human trafficking at a garment factory or some other commercial facility, it is helpful for us to utilize inspection authority to get in there and talk to people and find out what is going on. conversely, some places are not easy to get into or they might not be immediately cooperative. we have offered to reciprocate by going with them and facilitating a safe environment. we also come across a wage test -- theft issues in our investigations. they bring cases to us. we conduct an investigation and there is a bifurcation.

the human trafficking is investigated by us. they insist their clients in getting relief related to those wage theft issues. many wage theft situations have the potential to escalate into a human trafficking situation. obtaining labor through fraud or coercion, that is very serious. i'd like to remind everybody that that should be brought to the attention of police. >> thank you very much. >> it is good to see you here. i have patrolled the streets at

2:00 in the morning with the sergeant while he was under cover. i appreciate seeing you here. i want to ask, i think a lot of the public view wage theft as an issue between the employer and employee. one thing that your department could help op -- help out on his education. when you are out in the community, you have so many more officers that touched the community. it would be great as part of the general public outrage that your officers help to educate residents and businesses to their rights and responsibilities. >> in terms of our own internal training, it is not too much for us to learn through our role in training officers on top of

human trafficking, we can also bring in awareness of other issues. that is something in terms of us moving forward, we need to discuss. what role this department is playing in terms of referring cases or conducting investigations that reach a certain threshold. that is something that i am committed to working with in terms of identifying what is central role for our unit is and how we can disseminate that. we need to look for opportunities to educate the public. >> every time your police captain is in community forms, letting them know this is a priority would be helpful. >> thank you very much, sgt. the final presenter from the

treasurer's office. i would also like to thank the workers and other members of the public who have been patiently waiting and sitting through this hearing. as soon as this is done, we will proceed to public comment. thank you for being here. >> thank you very much. i am a legislative manager with the tax collector's office. i will keep my comments brief. thank you for calling this hearing on wage theft. it is an important issue for san franciscans. those registered with the city must renew their registration. when we send this notice, we do include notices regarding the minimum wage ordinance and others inside a city law including paid sick leave.

in addition, in the past year, the office of labor standards enforcement have entered into an mou so that we can implement cases against business cases as they move through their case process. with that, i am happy to take any questions. >> thank you. any questions? thank you very much. let's turn the hearing to public comment. let me call of your names. if you could please come up,walter, norman, chung, johannes, chen, chen, if you

could please start lining up. please come forward. if you could please come up and you could begin to speak. lopez. juan, claud, brown, kate, any member of the public who would like to speak, please come up. the mic is yours. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> good afternoon supervisors over your lunch time. i am from the progress of workers of lyons. i am an activist in the tiny speaking community. -- chinese speaking community. >> [speaking foreign langueage] >> i work with low-income parents and i help them do referrals. i work with a lot of wage theft. >> speaking[speaking foreign la]

>> they worked very hard to make a living for their families. they think if bay put 100%, they will get 100% back. unfortunately, they usually only get 40% back. >> [speaking foreign language] >> they work really long hours. not only do they get support for approval from the employers, they get yelled at by the employers. they bring frustration to their families. they take it out on the kids and their wives and their spouses. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> parents are not going to have time for their kids. the kids are going to skip school and join gangs. they are not going to be educated. >> [speaking foreign language] >> we hope that the city and the departments in the city can work together to enforce labor laws. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> i am the workers' rights coordinating attorney. we are community-based social services organization. we serve the latino and immigrant workers situations.

>> we are hoping that raising awareness on these issues will help sending these clients are really great including passage of the legislation that you have proposed. we would like to echo some of the issues that have been raised from our perspective. we can communicate what would be helpful regarding low-wage immigrants and latino workers. in 2010, which represented consultants. we recovered over $80,000 in wages for them. while they might seem small as an advocate of many small claims. those small claims, because these workers live on the edge,

that amount of money it means not getting evicted from their homes, being able to feed their children that night or being able to meet many other essential needs. the lesser examples of the cases, we've recovered $10,000 for care givers that were paid only $5 an hour. we recovered $4,000 for a day laborer who was not paid 43 days of pay by his employer. a lot of this goes on for a long time. that is not bad. >> i had three minutes. >> two minutes. i just want to take a minute to recognize olse.

it is taking a while to recognize the claims. we would like to see your legislation passed. >> thank you. >> hello. >> i am with the chinese progressive association. i think there are many loopholes in the minimum wage ordinance right now. it is not strong enough. i want to tell 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