CALIFORNIA : Bill Advances to Ensure Garment Workers’ Pay : Labor: Measure would require manufacturers to guarantee wages even if contractors shut down.

As garment manufacturers fend off lawsuits over offshore sweatshops, state lawmakers reached an agreement Thursday to help guarantee that garment workers in California are paid when their employers go out of business.

Manufacturers who design clothing and hire contractors to produce their lines must ensure that workers get paid if the contractors go belly up, under a bill passed by the Senate on Thursday and headed for approval in the Assembly.

The bill will have particular significance in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, where there are an estimated 160,000 garment workers.

The problem of wage violations in garment factories is chronic. The Labor Department recently concluded that garment workers nationwide are owed as much as $73 million in back wages.

‘This is a significant first step toward real garment industry reform,” said attorney Julie Su of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, who worked on the bill. “It is the first time manufacturers by law are required to take responsibility for garment workers’ wages.”

The legislation was sponsored by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), who helped craft the compromise after months of talks with major players in the industry, including representatives of such politically influential manufacturers and retailers as Guess Inc.

Steinberg worked with Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), lobbyists for clothing retailers, manufacturers, contractors, organized labor and Gov. Gray Davis’ office.

In a major concession by labor and Democrats, Steinberg dropped provisions that would have allowed lawsuits over back wages against manufacturers and retailers for the actions of subcontractors.

Labor representatives have long sought to impose such a liability on retailers and manufacturers. However, people involved in the negotiations concluded that the governor would not sign legislation expanding the right to sue.

Instead, the bill gives the state labor commissioner broader authority to investigate wage violations. Manufacturers and some retailers would be expected to guarantee the wages of garment workers whose employers go out of business.

Additionally, annual registration fees for manufacturers and contractors would rise, from the current $100 a year, to $250 to $2,500, depending on the size of the operation.

The increased fees would add as much as $3 million a year to the labor commissioner’s budget, allowing the commissioner to hire several dozen additional investigators to handle complaints.

Su, of the legal center, said the legislation is overdue protection for California’s garment workers, who produce goods sold for an estimated $30 billion annually.

“That’s the disparity,” Su said. “Workers every day are sweating over garments that we purchase without a thought. What we’re saying with this bill is that manufacturers cannot be complacent.”

Paul Gill, executive director of the industry group Made by the Bay in San Francisco, said the deal requires a “standard of responsibility [for manufacturers] that they can live with.”

The measure, AB 633, is backed by organized labor, but some trial lawyers were skeptical about its impact, given that workers will have little recourse to sue retailers and larger manufacturers.

Al Meyerhoff, a Los Angeles attorney who is suing major domestic retailers and manufacturers over sweatshop conditions in Saipan, said the legislation “sounds like a relatively small step.”