Labor Code Violations

Pablo Nuñez, a carpenter by trade, says he is accustomed to working 10-hour shifts, sometimes six days a week, on home-building sites throughout Southern California. But legally mandated overtime pay was almost as unheard of at job sites, he says, as visits from labor inspectors. "The only person getting overtime might be the brother of the foreman," Nuñez said. The Corona resident is among 85 residential construction workers from California, Nevada and Arizona who will share $242,301 in unpaid wages after settling a federal lawsuit last month against a major home-builder, Boise, Idaho-based Building Materials Holding Corp.

A judge has ruled that the Santa Barbara News-Press committed flagrant violations of federal labor laws when it fired eight journalists for engaging in union activities, and he ordered that the newspaper rehire the former employees. Evidence presented during a 17-day hearing last summer shows "the News-Press' widespread, general disregard for the fundamental rights of the employees," Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol wrote in a 75-page decision issued last week.

"Companero, how do they treat you here?" The stranger addressed Manuel Varela, a worker at Nary's Hand Car Wash on Beverly Boulevard, in Spanish. "Badly," Varela answered, continuing to pass tickets to motorists as they pulled in. Curious, Gabriel Chavez crawled out of the car he was vacuuming. Keeping his gaze on the small window that the owner used to peer at his workers, he stepped toward the visitor, out of his boss' sightline. "Do you know you have rights?" the stranger asked Chavez.

Two of the nation's largest unions formally announced a campaign to organize Southern California's 18,000 carwash workers and offered consumers recommendations on how to avoid carwashes that violate minimum wage laws. "We will do whatever it takes to clean up the carwash industry," said Jon Hiatt, general counsel for the AFL-CIO, which launched the campaign with the United Steelworkers.

State officials are shutting down a San Joaquin Valley farm labor contractor that hired a pregnant teen who died while pruning grapes last month. Authorities suspect 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez died because Merced Farm Labor denied her proper access to shade and water even as she worked in 100-degree heat. The California Department of Industrial Relations issued the stop-work order Thursday.

For two decades, Ziba Beauty salons have brought the ancient Indian techniques of eyebrow threading and henna tattoos to a clientele that has included Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Salma Hayek and Naomi Campbell. Ziba Chief Executive Sumita Batra, 39, and her staff have styled models for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines and TV shows "America's Next Top Model" and "Extreme Makeover."

The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against the Westin Los Angeles Airport, accusing the hotel of violating labor law by telling employees to remove union buttons and suspending those who refused. The board issued the complaint last month after Unite Here Local 11, a union representing hotel employees, charged that the hotel in July unlawfully prohibited employees from wearing union buttons and insignia. At least 26 were suspended, the complaint said.

In a filing with the National Labor Relations Board, the Southern California grocery workers union alleged that the Albertsons supermarket chain violated federal labor law in the days leading up to a vote by workers Sunday that gave union leaders the power to call a strike. A three-year contract for workers at three major Southland grocery chains is set to expire April 9 after two extensions in the last month.

While Gap Inc.'s stores have been disappointing shoppers and investors, the factories making the retailer's clothes have been treating workers better, according to the company's latest assessment of its labor practices. The update released Thursday marked the third time the owner of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic chains had publicly critiqued the conditions in overseas factories often derided as "sweatshops" because of abuses inflicted on employees.

The California Supreme Court handed workers a major victory Thursday, allowing them to bring class-action lawsuits alleging labor code violations even if they had signed agreements with their employers requiring them to arbitrate such disputes.