SF Human Rights Commission

Commissioner Faye Woo Lee, Molly Baier, Jose Bondoc, Bridgett N. Brown, John Crowley, Jerry Jones, Suzanne Korey, Ronnie Rhoe

The agency has four main programs:

2. Gender program – dealing with comparable pay for comparable work issues, sexual orientation, Family Medical Leave Act, and job protection. They are working on issues faced by victims of domestic violence regarding time off work, shelter and hospitalization. They also recently settled a Title IX case and secured comparable sports facilities for girls at a public school.
3. Race Discrimination program – involved with the SF Fire department consent decree requiring race and gender discrimination. Presently, they are working with 5000 African Americans in Mississippi who suffered discrimination while working for a large shipping company. The case is on hold because Hurricane Katrina destroyed courthouse records in Biloxi. They expect to resume in early 2006.

   The definition of race is expanding from mostly African-American to Asians and Latinos.

   They are also working to have the courts relax the standard for the "proof of intent" to discriminate because racial discrimination is much more subtle today than it was 40 years ago.

4. Disability Discrimination program – advocate on behalf of disabled persons. Different strategies need to be used on a case by case basis because disability is highly individual. They also take cases dealing with hidden disabilities such as bi-polar disorder and epilepsy.

   They are also working on better educational opportunities for disabled persons. They sued San Francisco State because of numerous architectural barriers around the campus. There is an ongoing suit against the SFUSD regarding accessibility.

5. National Origin program – work with immigrants, undocumented persons. They are working the narrow the applicability of language requirements for certain jobs. They recently won a case in which a new owner took over a company that employed monolingual Southeast Asians and fired them because they failed a written English test. The workers produced sprinkler heads and English proficiency was not a necessity in order to perform the work.

They also work with Day Laborers to ensure that they are paid fair wages.

Also, there was recently a 9^th Circuit Court decision that states that if a person is being deposed for a court case, they cannot be asked about their immigration status.

There are four Workers’ Rights Clinics in the Bay Area: Hastings Law School, E. San Jose, Oakland and a phone-in clinic. Call (415) 864-8208 for detailed information on these clinics. One can usually get an appointment within one week when law schools are in session. The services are totally free for persons with limited incomes. If they decide to litigate the LAS-ELC pay the costs. If they win, they ask the court to order the losing side to pay their attorneys fees. Middle income workers sometime fall between the cracks, but are referred to the Bar Association in hopes they can retain an attorney on a contingency basis.

The need for services has increased and there seems to be a lack of activism in the communities that most need help. Ms. Graff thinks that people are just exhausted from struggling to survive and don’t have the time or energy to organize.

Law students who receive training and education in employment law and complete a seminar for credit staff the clinic. The clinic focuses on discrimination and wage and hour disputes. They take both class action and individual cases and provide private co-counsel.

Ms. Ng described the fierce competition that exists in the garment manufacturing industry and how that competition forces manufacturers to "race to the bottom" in bidding for contracts. This many times results in the workers not getting paid legal wages for their work. The garment workers are at the bottom of the "Pyramid of Power and Profit" of the California garment industry. The retailers and manufacturers reside at the top, with the contractors who hire the workers in the middle. Assembly Bill 633, passed in 1999, guaranteed a minimum wage for the workers as well as allowing the workers to seek compensation from both the manufacturers and contractors if there is a lawsuit. The bill also detailed procedures to be followed for the recovery of owed wages. A State garment fund (paid through registration fees of garment contractors) has been established to help pay workers. Most of the workers in the Wins case were paid their actual lost wages from this fund. Under the "Hot Goods" Law, workers who have suffered wage and hour abuses can seek an injunction to stop shipment, confiscate the goods, sell the goods and place the proceeds into a "locked box" for disposition. In the Wins case, the bankruptcy court took possession of the locked box proceeds and the workers got none of that money.

Following is a synopsis of the Wins case:

Ms. Ng also stated that many contractors are closing down, leaving many workers with limited skills jobless. Through the trade Adjustment Act program many of the workers are getting training in the culinary, home health, custodial, childcare and floral industries.

San Francisco, CA, 94102

Jerry Jones moved to adjourn the meeting and Rich seconded the motion to adjourn at 3:25 p.m. The motion was approved unanimously.