Sweatshop Sweep Finds Labor Violations

A sweep by state inspectors through Orange County garment sweatshops last week uncovered more than 40 labor violations amounting to more than $127,000 in fines, according to figures released Monday by the Department of Industrial Relations.

The Orange County fines accounted for almost 20% of the $669,150 in violations found in systematic raids of sewing operations in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Oakland by agents for the labor commissioner’s office, the state Department of Occupational Safety and Health and the Department of Industrial Relations, said spokesman John Duncan.

Most of the shops raided in Orange County were concentrated in Santa Ana and Garden Grove and employed Latino or Asian workers “who don’t speak English that well and don’t understand their basic rights,” said Duncan.

In one case, agents shut down Seppe Designs of Santa Ana after they found that the shop wasn’t registered with the state and wasn’t paying workers’ compensation.

Of the violations found in Orange County, 12 were for faulty record-keeping; 10 for failing to pay workers’ compensation; nine for failing to register with the state; two for making payments to workers in cash; and 10 for the relatively minor infraction of failing to publicly post worker rights.