Enforcement of Labor Laws
While we are always appreciative of Robert Scheer’s support of our multi-agency labor law enforcement program, we feel he overlooked several important issues in his article (“Instead of 187: Enforcement of Labor Laws,” Column Left, Nov. 20).
Scheer recognizes that the almost unrestricted flood of undocumented workers into California has left the state with significant labor law enforcement problems. He then chastises the governor for not using more state taxpayer dollars to rectify a problem created by the failure of the federal government to enforce the borders. His statement that “for the entire state, on a good day, there are only 16 inspectors to enforce the labor laws” implies that these are the only investigators the state has. In fact, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement currently has 173 professional employees who are responsible for such investigations.
What Scheer does not mention is that the U.S. Department of Labor, which is the federal partner in our multi-agency enforcement effort, has the mandate to enforce the federal wage and hour laws in California. Unfortunately, it has only 62 employees (including investigators, management and clerical staff) in the entire state. Unlike the state, these same Department of Labor investigators have the mandate to check immigration status during investigations.
We would be happy to see increased enforcement in industries attracting undocumented workers, but feel it is time the federal government steps up to the plate and either increases its own enforcement of labor laws or provides funding for the state to do so.
VICTORIA L. BRADSHAW
State Labor Commissioner, San Francisco
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Once when appraising a factory building, I observed that most of the workers appeared to be Latinos. During the appraisal the owner left me to go speak to a worker whom he addressed in Spanish. When he came back he said, “Any time you can hire $12 worth of work for $6 an hour it’s good business.” Perhaps anticipating my thoughts as to who these workers were displacing, he said, “Look, you either import the cheap labor or you’ll end up exporting the job.”
If what this businessman said is true, it’s hard to see how these Latino workers are a liability to California.
ROBERT C. MASON
Simi Valley
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