Workers Picket Man’s House in Wage Dispute : Protests: Undocumented day laborers march in Granada Hills, demanding $1,600. Their target says he owes them nothing.

Four undocumented day laborers who said they were cheated out of $1,600 in back pay by their former employer marched down a quiet suburban street to the man’s rented hilltop home in Granada Hills Thursday demanding their money.

The four men were joined by about 20 other immigrant workers in a demonstration outside Fernando Esquivia’s two-story house on Elnora Place. Many carried placards with the messages in Spanish, “No More Abuse for Undocumented Workers,” and “We Are Not Animals. We are Human Beings. Exercise Social Justice for Undocumented Workers.”

The men, accompanied by reporters and representatives from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, knocked on the door of the house, but no one answered.

Esquivia said later that he did not owe the men money.

“They’re liars,” Esquivia said. “If I owed them money, I would give it to them. I’m not guilty.”

Esquivia said the men did not work for him but for others he had introduced them to. He said he was just trying to help them find work, and if they are owed any money, they should talk to the people who actually employed them.

“They said they were starving, and this is the way they pay me back,” Esquivia said.

Enrique Javiel, 27, said he, Silvano Pacheco, 41, and Gonzalo Guevara, 54, all of Guatemala and Victor Galdamez, 35, of El Salvador met with Esquivia on Monday to try to resolve the matter but to no avail.

“He owes us $1,600,” Javiel said. “He has not paid us half of what he said he was going to pay us. We know he has the money to pay us. But he doesn’t want to give us anything. We would like this type of abuse to stop.”

Javiel said Esquivia contracted the men to perform various jobs at several locations in Los Angeles between Jan. 17 and Feb. 6. He said the manager of the apartment where the men live is a friend of Esquivia’s and told them that Esquivia needed people to perform some moving and construction work.

Javiel said the men were promised $50 each a day, but that so far Esquivia had only paid them a total of $850. Javiel said the men had kept notes of the hours and days they had worked.

Javiel said that after several unsuccessful attempts to collect their wages from Esquivia, the men went to the human rights office at La Placita Church in Los Angeles. The office assists undocumented workers who have complaints.

The Rev. Thomas H. Smolich, director of Proyecto Pastoral, another agency that assists immigrant workers, spoke at Thursday’s demonstration.

“We’re here to dramatize the fact that this is not just Mr. Esquivia,” Smolich said. “This happens hundreds and hundreds of times all through Southern California. This has to stop.”

Smolich said he hoped that the demonstration would send this message to those employers who violate the rights of day laborers:

“We are looking out for you. We will come to your house. We will take you to court,” Smolich said. “We’re going to keep coming after you until the men and women who work for you receive their just due.”

Officials of Proyecto Pastoral said if they do not hear from Esquivia this week, they will assist the men in preparing a lawsuit against him.

Fred Nakamura, an attorney with Neighborhood Legal Services, a federally funded agency, said undocumented workers are guaranteed the same labor rights as documented workers.

Nakamura said that although many transactions between employers and workers are usually handled in cash and without receipts, it is possible to prosecute a case as long as more than one worker is willing to testify.