One of the largest Chinese-language newspapers in the US has been ordered by a federal judge to pay $5.19 million to 200 employees who were denied years of overtime pay and subjected to other labour law violations, the Associated Press (AP) has reported.
The Chinese Daily News, based in Los Angeles and New York, must pay more than $3.5 million in damages and penalties in addition to more than $1.5 million in interest to the workers, according to an order issued late Thursday last by US District Judge Consuelo B Marshall in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The AP report said:
"This ruling is significant in that it tells employers that they cannot take advantage of immigrant and non-English speaking workers," said a statement from Cornelia Dai, one of the attorneys for the workers.
All of the $5.19 million will go to the workers, and the judge will set legal fees later, another attorney, Randy Renick, said Friday. "We're confident that this is all going to be reversed on appeal," said Steve Atkinson, an attorney who represented the newspaper.
The employees filed a class-action suit against the Monterey Park-based, Chinese-language paper in 2004, alleging labor law violations.
Atkinson argued that the workers were professionals who were exempt from the work laws, and that they mainly worked from home. "These reporters never came to the office ... maybe once a week for a training session. So they were on their own to take breaks and lunches," he said.
