Ex-Employees Sue O.C. Clothing Manufacturer : Litigation: Santa Ana-based Clothes Connection is accused of harassment and discrimination. The company recently was investigated by state and federal agencies for labor violations.

Clothes Connection, a large garment maker here that has been beset with labor and immigration problems, is being sued by several former employees who accuse company managers of harassment and discrimination.

One of the four lawsuits filed this week in Orange County Superior Court was brought by Lydia Rodriguez, the former human resources director at the Santa Ana factory, which sells clothes to discount retailers such as K mart and Wal-Mart.

Rodriguez alleges that officers and managers at Clothes Connection harassed her because she is Latino. The suit says company operators referred to Rodriguez in “derogatory racial terms, yelled and screamed at [her], using profanity and obscenities.”

As a result, Rodriguez says, she was forced to resign in March.

The other lawsuits, which make similar accusations, were filed by three former Vietnamese workers--Nhan Tran Phan, Hung M. Tran and Nhu Thi Nguyen.

The suits, which were handled by Woodland Hills attorney Manuel H. Miller, seek lost wages as well as general and punitive damages. Two of the suits name as defendants Sharon Stephen, president of Clothes Connection; her father, Rich Stephen, who operates a sister company in Los Angeles called California Connection; and plant manager Rod Jackson.

None of the three defendants returned messages this week. Company attorney Cynthia A. Woodruff of Beverly Hills also did not respond to telephone calls.

The lawsuits are the latest complaints against Clothes Connection, which has been under fire from state and federal labor agencies that have scrutinized the company’s labor practices.

Last month, immigration officials raided Clothes Connection and detained 42 workers suspected of being illegal immigrants. The raid was a follow-up to an investigation begun last March when agents discovered hundreds of illegal immigrants on the payroll.

Clothes Connection had 1,400 employees last spring, but its payroll has since shrunk to about 750, according to Richard K. Rogers, director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s office in Los Angeles. Nearly all of Clothes Connection’s workers are Latino or Vietnamese, and most earn minimum wage.

Also last spring, state labor investigators alleged that Clothes Connection failed to pay overtime wages and charged workers more than $100 a month for needles, bobbins and other tools required to do their work.

Jose Millan, an assistant state labor commissioner, said Friday that Clothes Connection has stopped both of those illegal practices. “They’ve cleaned up their act,” Millan said, though he added that the company still faces hefty fines for the prior violations. Clothes Connection previously said it charged some workers for tools in order to combat employee theft.

The company also was cited earlier in the year for numerous serious safety and healthy violations, including exposing workers to diseases through shared equipment. The company has contested these Cal/OSHA citations.