Worker’s Plight Called ‘Near Slavery’ : Labor: The immigrant says her employer paid her no more than $2 an hour though she sometimes worked 12 hours a day, six days a week.

Zoila Herrera Manzano worked thousands of hours at the Jang Mo Gip restaurant on Garden Grove Boulevard--sometimes 12 hours a day, six days a week. She emptied trash cans, washed dishes and cleaned toilets.

But Herrera, a 33-year-old, Spanish-speaking immigrant from Mexico, was paid just a little over $2 an hour during a 16-month period of employment beginning in December, 1989. Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, described Herrera’s employment there as “near slavery” and agreed to help the woman mediate her grievance against the restaurant.

Kennedy said Herrera’s case is one of the worst instances of labor abuse ever reviewed by the commission. By the commission’s own calculations, he said, Herrera is owed $15,525 in back pay, taking into account minimum pay of $4.75 an hour for eight hours, and an additional $6.37 for each hour of overtime.

Herrera filed her complaint with the commission on April 18. She sought the commission’s help, she said, after a friend told her about receiving help with a labor situation.

Established in 1971, the Human Relations Commission has tackled a variety of issues ranging from hate crimes to worker exploitation. Although it lacks enforcement power, it has accomplished its mission by serving as a mediator in disputes.

“We’re not here to render judgment but to explain to both parties what the laws are and, in this particular case, to explain the allegations brought by Zoila. We don’t want to see anyone run out of business,” Kennedy said.

Herrera has also filed a complaint against the restaurant with the state Department of Labor in Santa Ana.

After Herrera went to the commission, Kennedy invited both sides to sit down and reach a compromise to settle the dispute. A mediation session was organized in which restaurant owner Chun Young Ja agreed to pay Herrera a reduced sum of $8,000 in back pay. Kennedy said Ja signed a check for $1,000 as the first installment but then stopped payment through her bank.

“The next thing I get is a letter from her attorney saying she doesn’t owe anything,” Kennedy said.

Ja could not be reached for comment but her attorney, Matthew C. Long of Los Angeles, said his client lacked counsel during mediation and is capable of speaking only a little English. She “was frightened and intimidated” during the mediation process, Long said.

“Here we have a new immigrant, as they both are, and with the respect to authority that immigrants frequently have, they sometimes respond by waiving their legitimate rights,” Long said.

As for Ja’s bounced check, Herrera said she intends to use that as part of her new complaint with the state Department of Labor.

During the May 2 mediation process, Kennedy said he explained, with the help of a Korean interpreter, the state’s wage and labor laws to Ja. Kennedy said that Ja acknowledged she had paid Herrera below minimum wage, failed to make payroll deductions, including Social Security, and did not pay Herrera any overtime.

In an interview Friday, Herrera also charged that Ja had refused to give her a raise, noting on numerous occasions that Herrera was in the country illegally and “didn’t have a right” to earn more money.

Herrera, who has a 13-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter in Mexico, said she was desperate for work when she heard about the opening at Ja’s restaurant.

“A friend of mine said the work was very hard. I needed the job to help pay for my children’s school, their clothes and food for them in Mexico,” Herrera said.

While employed, Herrera said she often worked while ill because she feared she would lose her job. On one occasion she said a large trash can fell on her foot. She took one day off to nurse her injury but on the second day, she said Ja showed up at her home, asking her why she wasn’t at work.

“After two more days, I had to go back in. I hobbled around the restaurant the whole day,” she said.

Kennedy said that Herrera’s immigration status is not at issue.

“The question is whether or not she deserves to be paid after the work has been performed. California law says that if you work an hour, you should be paid for an hour, it’s the basic standard,” Kennedy said.