>> if you wish to speak, please step up to the microphone. >> good morning, supervisors. thank you for having us here today. we are happy to join the hearing today and share some of the messages coming from our communities, and it's a killer on this issue. i am the director for the filipino community center. we are proud member of nine organizations that have been fighting for this campaign to end wage that. the nine organizations include [unintelligible] again workers united, china

progress of the association, pride at work, power, and [unintelligible] that is nine organizations that are against this campaign against wage that, which is an epidemic. we can really be the way here in san francisco. this is affecting workers in san francisco, including day laborers, restaurant workers, hotel workers, construction workers, security guards, domestic workers come a delivery workers and drivers, and it takes several different forms. in our community is not being paid overtime. wage that is happening in some it different forms. it is dealing not only their wages, but the dignity of workers. they are fighting to provide high levels of care in the industries they are working in. the employers, the ones that are engaged in wage that become are stealing hundreds of thousands

of dollars in the city of san francisco. in the filipino community we are researching in particular the care-giving industry where we found, and you will hear more about it from victoria keynote that employers are accusing them. -- abusing them. so many workers are not able to come forward or not willing to come forward, and that is the work we're trying to do as part of this campaign to bring this issue to like the mixture does that happen in san francisco. it addresses quality of care issues as well. san francisco elderly and disabled patients are not able to receive the care that they need. supervisor chiu: thank you. >> district supervisors, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. my name is victoria akeno, giver

since july 15, 2007 up until present. i am here to lay my broad experience a care giver on behalf of other care givers that i know. i started working as a live-in care giver. two of us taking care of six elderly patients. we work 12 hours per day, and we are paid $60 per day, equivalent to $5 per hour. no overtime pay. there was no bedroom for the care givers. we slept on the floor, the living room, and aside from caregiving, i would clean. when employers do not pay at least the minimum wage,, and

they are stealing the workers time and the true value of the work. in november 21, 2007, up until present i worked in a restaurant. from november 21 to july 2008, i worked alone without reliever. in november 14, 2008, i was being paid below the minimum wage, and it was $72 per day and no overtime pay. until i found out -- supervisor chiu: thank you very much.

>if i could ask folks to hold the applause. generally we do hold the applause so that we can get through public comment. thank you. >> supervisors, good morning. i am from the women's collector. i will be here this morning mainly to interpret for our two members. i want to highlight in particular the piece of this legislation that our members are free to call the concerned about, and that is in this section of educational materials. what we would do if this law passes is work closely with the olse to make sure that type of card was developed for day laborers. they would be able to provide to their employers to pick them up on street corners.

this would inform them they have the legal obligation to provide their contact information. why is this important and why is it needed? day laborers by the thousands every year are -- their wages are still live because employers think they can do this by not giving their contact information, telling them they will get paid eventually, dumping them on a street corner and the day laborer has no way to find these people. usually small contractors. they do not know where their place of business is or where they live. we cannot go after the employer or file a way to claim -- a wage claim. it is project really important educational materials, which will lead to this card that will better allow employers to comply with current law and empowers the laborers to make sure they

get the necessary information to make sure their wages are paid. >> when as the us. -- buenos diaz. [speaking spanish] >> good morning to everyone here. i am representing day laborers from the san francisco de labor program. -- sa day labor program. what i am here to tell you is that they laborers must face wage that day after day. it is very common unfortunately.

this is a serious problem, and it can continues to grow and our community. -- the and it continues to grow in our community. even though we are organized and we are here among our friends, members of others -- other organizations, you can see the problem still exists in something we still have to fight against.

so we request your consideration for this card, type of card for day laborers, so that their employers have to write their contact information, and it is easier to get our unpaid wages farm our employers. it would alleviate this problem very much if we had this card. anthis law allows us to be ableo go after our unpaid wages.

so thank you very much for your attention and for your consideration of our petition today. thank you. supervisor chiu: thank you. >> [speaking spanish] >> good morning, members. it is an honor to be before you and represent the women's collective. i am here to share three experiences that i personally experienced. first, i worked for two weeks and collected only $40 for my work.

for one year i worked for a particular employer and i receive no benefits. they moved me around a lot, this particular employer. we are the ones as domestic workers that clean people's homes. we provide a necessary job, and so i hope that you pass this ordinance today. >> [speaking spanish] >> so i hope you hear about that today. we are day laborers and domestic workers and proud of the work we

do. we hope you consider we should not be suffering like this, that we have families, children to feed and to send to school, so please support us today. thank you. supervisor chiu: thank you very much. >> [speaking chinese] >> good morning. i work in china and have experienced wage that. -- chinatown. i work eight hours a day, but only paid seven hours of work. >> [speaking chinese]

>> i am a volunteer so we can have other people that do not know english. and [speaking chinese] >> i am here today to locally heavy support this ordinance so that we can change this epidemic of wage that. -- wage theft. so we released a report last year. we discovered chinatown restaurant workers did not fit minimum-wage at 50%. 70% did not get over time.

that affects not only workers, but families come economies, and consumers. >> [speaking chinese] >> wage theft is not only in the chinese community, but also in other communities of color. we hope that you will pass this ordinance to take a first up towards changing the situation. an>> [speaking chinese] >> we want more timely and

effective enforcement so that employers cannot does play games. we want to have more tools to put more pressure on the employers. we want to have shortened time process so the workers can get their wages back. supervisor chiu: thank you. [applause] the house as to hold the applause with conductor public comment. and >> good morning. and i am a legal assistant. the new wage that ordinance will strengthen the power of our organization and other community organizations to properly and efficiently show the severity of the crime and consequences. the majority of guilty employers knowingly and willingly break the law. they also know the kids is of an employee exit being able to collect wages are so slim due to

untimely investigation and collection efforts. this works. the workers walk through our doors asking for fair wages and proper business practices are the few that are brave enough to take the risk. they are then unprepared for the lengthy and difficult process of recuperating wages. the employer who makes the decision to inflate these marginal is population snoknow e likelihood of an employee seeking retribution against these crimes. they are making our work easier and increasingly more effective. the most of for the thing is it restores hope to workers that had just remedy is possible and all have the right to a fair work environment. thank you very much. an>> hola.

[speaking spanish] >> good morning, everybody. my name is edwin, and we're here because we think this ordinance is very important to us as workers. [ speaking spanish] >> we are here because a lot of employers take advantage of workers, and in my case i have three cases i will tell you about. i worked at a restaurant for 2.5 years, and this was an establishment where i did not give breaks. i did not get a day off. my kids were stolen. when i tried to take a paid sick

day, i was fired. >> [speaking spanish] >> i was actually able to recover from my paid sick time, but when i was let go, i did not receive payment from my last working days there. thank you to the laws that do exist, i was able to recover that as well, but we still need stronger laws and better enforcement. thank you. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning. my name is stephen crane, the co-director of the young workers united. i am here this morning to congratulate the city in its leadership, as well as office of

labor standards enforcement for the leadership and years it has shown across the country. -- we have received phone calls. we're in conversation with many other organizations like ours in cities across the country as part of the interface worker just this and other networks. in speaking to these groups over and over again, we receive questions of how you usdo you dd sick leave and others. we have our own agency, which is doing a fabulous job, and we're very excited to have the agency to enforce the laws, in many cities do not have that. what we are asking for today in this ordinance is to really get more tools and to empower the olse to have the tools and ability to enforce the law more strongly, because many of the stories you are hearing today and will continue to here are stories that continue to happen.

we have these laws and the protections and the agency to enforce them, but the situations keep happening. we need to continue to be that leader, to think of the creative ways that we can make our laws stronger and then forced a stronger, to continue to be that leader across the country that people look to protec to protece worker and the rights of all people, including workers and immigrants in all communities. thank you for continue to be the leader in considering our ordinance this morning. -- and considering our ordinance this morning. supervisor chiu: if i could ask folks to hold their applause. thank you. >> i will be reading a statement from the staff attorney at the employment law center. the asian law caucus -- promotes and events as the rights of low- income asian-americans. 30 years ago when my dad was a waiter in chinatown he was getting paid $1 an hour, which

was a third of minimum wage. unfortunately things today are not that different. most of the san francisco restaurant worker that we see through our clinic work $65 to $85 -- arper week. for these reasons asian law caucus strongly supports this ordinance so that the next generation of san francisco workers can actually enjoyed the labor protections provided under the law and work with dignity. right now i will be reading carol's statement. the legal loss under has been protecting the the go rights of low-income working families for the past 95 years. in addition to litigating employment, discrimination in wage and hour cases, they hold clinics for nights for wheat throughout the bay area. many workers are informed of their rights, and because a very

understandable fear of retaliation they decide not to do anything because they figure a little bit of money is better than nothing at all. many of their clients have received threats of physical harm and even death to themselves and family members. for those clients who are undocumented, threats of supporting -- supporting them. a recent example, to rest workers that are paid a fixed monthly salary, which did not amount to the san francisco minimum wage. it filed a complaint, received a notice of determination. after year there was -- there has been no settlement in a hearing scheduled in the wages paid. -- and no wages paid. supervisor campos: next speaker, please. >> my name is tim paulson, executive assistant director of the san francisco labor council. we represent over 100 unions in town, over 1000 men and women

who have the luxury or have fought to have a collective bargaining agreement where we have a living wage and health care and pension plans. the executive order of the san francisco labor council unit -- voted unanimously to advance the progressive workers campaign. we want to thank the committee for hearing this today. we fought hard and akron fand san francisco for a lot of different laws, and when we see there is this kind of abuse that still happens over something as basic as the minimum wage, i think all of us are our rage. we're very pleased to team up with the progress of workers alliance. we will continue to work with them on common interests, and we really urge this ordinance gets past so we can fix some very bad rounds in san francisco. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. -- supervisor chiu: thank you.

>> good morning. my name is connie ford. i am speaking on behalf of my local and jobs with justice. we represent many low-wage workers. because of our union we fight every day to ensure those workers are afforded all of the rights and are able to work here and live under the values of san francisco. so we absolutely support this ordinance. jobs with justice, as you all probably know, is a coalition. we just celebrated our first year anniversary of the coalition of community and labor unions working together to ensure everyone's workers' rights are enacted and lived upon. many of the organizations in this house today are part of jobs with justice. i am proud to be the labor

component on this fight. and real briefly, wage theft is against the law. all workers deserve the right to work and receive their benefits. this will insure that those workers will get a better shot at getting what they deserve. we commend all of the people that are here, all of the good organizing, and we thank you for your support in this. supervisor chiu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am a proud member of the progress of workers alliance. and may 12 was a historic day for san francisco. it was the first time in history that a city held a hearing on wage theft. we hope that today will be another historic day that the subcommittee picks the first

votes on this legislation to take a serious stand against wage that and show employers and workers that the city is on their side for those responsible businesses who are playing by the rules, for those workers that need to support their families, that the city is on their side. you heard from a handful of workers in labor leaders today. they are just a sampling and representative of the many hundreds of people we are talking to over the last several months about this issue that we're talking about. i want you to remember that for each worker that spoke of today, there are dozens, if not hundreds of more who have spoken out and taken action and filed claims and are not able to be here today. for those, even hundreds of more that have not found themselves under this, they could come forward in shared their stories in public. i want you to know that this legislation for us is the first

up that we see towards a much longer path ahead of us coming towards really addressing the crisis of low-wage workers. we want to create a task force that will bring together not only the relevant city agencies cathat can leverage their authority, but a gauge the state and federal government that have a responsibility as well and continue being a leader in the country and a model for the country on wage that. thank you very much. supervisor chiu: thank you. [applause] >> i never had any money. i bought at a second-hand store, [inaudible] i just cannot take it no more. all i would like to say, maybe i

will get a better job that pays. when i get to this city, my tears will all be dry, because i will find a great good job that pay is going to be real high. oh, i would like that today. make it happen, please. [applause] supervisor chiu: thank you. any other members of the public that wish to speak on this item, item number one? cnn, public comment is closed. colleagues, we have before us a set of amendments that supervisor campos suggested. can we take those amendments without objection? that will be the case. to the city or