Labor Sweep Nets 170 Violations, $536,000 in Fines

State labor officials said Friday that a sweep through Orange County last month turned up 170 businesses that were violating state labor laws, resulting in $536,300 in fines.

More than 30% of the 518 businesses checked were found to have violations, including lack of workers’ compensation insurance that brought orders for immediate shutdown of operations. That was a higher percentage than was found in any of the 25 other counties that have been checked, said Victoria Bradshaw, state labor commissioner based in San Francisco.

“We mainly hit garment makers, auto-repair shops, builders and construction,” she said. “Those are industries where we know there has been a problem.”

While garment makers accounted for the highest percentage of violations found--77%--the highest fines were issued to restaurants and auto-repair shops. Those fines accounted for $445,000 of the total of $536,000.

Bradshaw said the sweeps are part of a special effort by the state Department of Industrial Relations and the Employment Development Department, which oversees collection of employment taxes, to identify employers who are short-changing their workers. She said that the joint effort resulted from findings that employers who violate tax laws often don’t adhere to labor laws, either. Industrial Relations inspectors used EDD records to decide which businesses to check, she said.

Names of businesses cited after the investigation were not released.