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 who showed up for this historic meeting. a supervisor campos mentioned, this affects mostly the lowest wage earners, who are rights ane therefore vulnerable, especially during this critical high employment. . i have personally helped to

refer some of my students to the different city departments to retreat back wages and to get worker information. many of my students were afraid to complain for fear of retaliation, and if they leave the jobs, there are many others who will line up for the opportunity. years ago, i remember personally helping an egregious case where my student was working for $500 a month in a hair salon in chinatown. preemployment denied she a to work there and even provided fabricated evidence to counter that claim. after she lost the first round, i helped to get a pro bono lawyer to retrieve her wage because she kept careful recording of her work hours and had witnessed. since the department and newcomer parents also register

their students, i am hoping that we will provide information in the intake offices so that parents will get that. with the help of all the different organizations and ethnic media, i hope the wage system will no longer -- [tone] supervisor campos: thank you very much. next speaker? >> i am speaking for a whole slew of organizations involved and garment plants socially, ok? i don't need to rehash that there is a great need for you to act on this enforcement because in terms of employment and justice, and working conditions. me, i am focusing on the future of this city because right now, everything we're talking about,

dealing with the lowest stratum of our economic pyramid, they are the least empowered. they always feel helpless and think they cannot do anything. they are very apathetic. they're vulnerable and they are in non-participatory in the community. ok? oftentimes, these people have problems within the family. i feel that to enforce the sleeper, doing this labor enforcement, the great number of people shows that you care. it shows these people, they don't have -- if they are powerless, they have hope. in the city, you can retain the trust for the future of the city

and the community. legislatively, regulatory coming in terms of resources, and what is more, it is a grassroots organization. in order to -- [tone] supervisor campos: thank you. thank you, sir. >> my name a charlotte 9 attorney -- my name is charlotte and i am an attorney. we're a nonprofit legal services agency. we hold workers' rights clinics around the bay area and here in san francisco four nights a week and we see thousands of workers a year. minimum wage, overtime, and the

thing that is constructive as we see workers who have already quit from their jobs. we do not see as many workers coming forward who still work at the places they're complaining about the employment processes at. speaking with other nonprofit legal services in san francisco, non-profit agencies are completely overwhelmed. claims are frequently complex. the process is easier for the workers to go to run their own, but it is difficult to go through the process on their own. it forces us as attorneys too often advise clients in this circumstance that their choices are to proceed through the administrative process and complete their legal rights at the end, or take a settlement that the employment might offer earlier on, which we think causes workers to compromise on

legal rights. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. is there any other member of the public who would like to come forward? public comment is closed. colleagues, i don't know if we have any comment to that. a lot has been said today. let me just thank all the members of the public and the workers who waited so patiently throughout this hearing and who had the courage to come forward and speak about their own individual experiences in sharing very personal information, very painful information, which i think, more eloquent than anyone of us could upset,. to why this is such an important issue. the last thing that i would say is the ordinance that was introduced will be heard in the near future and we look forward to having a further discussion