APPAREL

Appeal Filed in Apparel Manufacturing License Dispute: A south Los Angeles garment manufacturer that state officials threatened to shut down is staying open--at least pending a decision on an appeal filed by the company with the California Department of Industrial Relations. The appeal is largely intended to secure a new operating license that the state, for unspecified reasons, has refused to grant to the south L.A. firm, which is alternately known as Chums Casual, Chums Knitwear or Stephen K. Corp. Assistant California Labor Commissioner Jose Millan said if the firm’s appeal is turned down and the more than $23,000 in penalties being demanded from Chums is not paid, he will seek a court order to shut the knitwear firm. Chums, which supplies such retailers as J.C. Penney Co. and Macy’s, has been cited recently by federal and state authorities for a variety of minimum wage, overtime pay and health and safety violations. The firm has denied wrongdoing, but said it recently paid $80,000 in back wages and a $12,240 fine to settle federal labor law charges mainly because it lacked the records to contest the allegations.