San Francisco Care Workers Awarded Unpaid Wages in Settlement

Two dozen residential care workers in San Francisco received a wage settlement on December 18 totaling $800,000 after settling lawsuits against their employers for unpaid wages.

In two cases involving three residential care facilities, the workers — who are Filipinos — claimed that they did not receive the rightful minimum wage or overtime pay for the hours that they worked.

The cases were prosecuted by the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office with support from other city and community agencies, including the city’s Office of  Labor Standards Enforcement and the Filipino Community Center (FCC), reports a San Francisco Examiner article.

“We know if one set of workers is impacted by wage theft…we are all impacted,” City Supervisor David Campos is quoted as saying. He spoke on International  Migrants Day (Dec. 18) from the steps of City Hall, where the check was presented and a celebration took place [video].

Campos praised the residential care workers, referring to them as “some of the city’s heroes and heroines” for speaking out about “unfair labor practices.”

The three residential facilities involved in the settlement are Sunset Gardens and Nacario’s Home of San Francisco, which are both Filipino-owned, and Veal’s Residential Care Home, according to a ABS-CBN North America Bureau article.

“We congratulate these Filipino caregivers in particular for their victory in asserting their rights in an industry that takes advantage of workers, especially immigrant workers,” Mario de Mira, FCC’s workers’ rights program coordinator, said in an Inquirer.net article.

— by Deane Beebe