Koreatown Restaurant Suit Seeks Back Overtime

In a case held up by their attorneys as emblematic of pervasive exploitation in the service industry, eight former employees of a Koreatown restaurant filed a lawsuit Wednesday, alleging they had been subjected to long hours and poor working conditions while earning sub-minimum wages.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs stressed that the complaint is not unique but rather just one instance of the widespread mistreatment of low-wage immigrant service workers.

“This one employer is an incredibly egregious example, but it is an industry problem: low-wage immigrant workers, working in restaurants [or] the carwash industry, where they’re treated extremely badly and they’re getting paid miserably,” said Tori Kim of the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocate, or KIWA, which is handling the case with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, seeks overtime pay for eight men who allege they worked 10- to 12-hour days at the Elephant Snack Corner Restaurant while earning as little as $250 a week.

Three workers allege they received just one day off every other week, and left their jobs last month when owner Jang Won Yi rebuffed their demand for a day off each week--a requirement under California labor laws.

“When we asked for the day off, he told us, ‘Whoever wants to work can work, and whoever doesn’t want to work, can leave,’ ” said Bernabe Zarate, who worked at the restaurant for 4 1/2 years as a kitchen helper. “He wasn’t going to give us the day off.”

Attorney Charlie Chi, representing restaurant owner Yi, said his client welcomes the lawsuit because it represents a break from KIWA’s previous tactics, which included pickets of the eatery, at Western Avenue and 9th Street in the heart of Koreatown.

“The courts are there to solve these disputes. The court will hear both sides of the story, and they’ll make a fair decision,” Chi said. “We are not denying the fact that the owner violated some labor laws.”

Chi does dispute the amount of money in question. The plaintiffs are seeking an estimated total of $300,000 in compensation from Elephant Snack Corner, but Chi said a U.S. Department of Labor inquiry put the figure closer to $15,000.

KIWA is “making a big example of it, but I’m not sure if this is even that big of an issue,” Chi said. “In L.A., there are many employers who violate these labor laws. The Department of Labor is there to do the investigation. If they think there is a violation, they will impose the right penalty and the right compensation. . . . The problem is that KIWA is trying to handle this case as if they are an authorized government agency.”

But Kim said KIWA resorted to picketing--and then to litigation--only after several attempts at peaceful negotiation were met with resistance from Yi.

Founded in 1992, KIWA is an advocacy group for low-income, immigrant workers of all ethnicities. More recently, the group launched a campaign to improve working conditions in Koreatown restaurants, drawing criticism from many local restaurant owners, who view the group as incendiary and disruptive.

Now, it is working hand in hand with the Mexican American organization for the first time,

“We actually have the same mission: to protect immigrant workers,” said Enrique Gallardo of MALDEF. “Immigrant workers are a very vulnerable community here in Los Angeles. Employers are taking advantage. . . . You see that in wage and hour violations, you see it in health and safety violations and in the employers’ intimidation of the workers when they demand their rights.

“We’re both seeking to do the same thing--to make sure that the exploitation that occurred here doesn’t go unchecked.”