SAN FRANCISCO, June 12 UNITE-HERE-Cintas
Living Wage Award Believed to be the Largest in U.S. History
SAN FRANCISCO, June 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The California Court of Appeal ordered the Cintas Corporation to pay more than $1.18 million in back wages and interest to hundreds of Northern California workers for violating the city of Hayward's Living Wage Ordinance. This historic judgment, affirming a September 2005 Alameda Superior Court ruling, is believed to be the largest living wage award in U.S. history.
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"I'm so happy about this victory," said Francisca Amaral, a former Cintas worker and one of the suit's plaintiffs. "Cintas told us that we would get nothing. This decision shows that workers can get justice and get what we've earned." Ms. Amaral left the company because of disabling work-related injuries. After 13 years of service, she was paid $8.40 an hour.
When workers filed the suit in 2003, it was one of the first attempts to enforce a living wage law through the courts. Hayward's living wage law required employers to pay higher wages to workers who worked on city contracts. Employees without health insurance like Ms. Amaral should have received $10.71 per hour. Rather than agreeing to pay the living wage, Cintas cancelled the Hayward contract. The company fought against paying workers the required wage, unsuccessfully raising many constitutional and procedural challenges to the workers' lawsuit.
The 2005 judgment awarded the 219 workers, including current and former employees from Cintas's San Leandro and Union City laundries, $805,243 in back wages plus $375,000 in interest. The final award will be significantly higher than this judgment because interest has continued to accrue over the last three years. Additionally, Cintas must pay $258,900 in civil penalties to be divided between the workers and the state of California. The Court also ordered Cintas to pay the workers' legal fees and other costs associated with the litigation.
"The judgment against Cintas in Hayward represents the largest scale employer violation I've seen of a living wage law in the United States," said Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project and one of the country's leading experts on living wage litigation.
In Los Angeles, Cintas workers have a similar pending class action case for violations of the city's living wage. Over the past few years, questions have also been raised about Cintas's history of compliance with living wage laws in Marin County and Santa Monica, California, as well as in Dayton, Ohio, and Madison, Wisconsin.
"Cintas had a moral and legal obligation to pay workers a living wage, but they ignored it," says UNITE HERE General President Bruce Raynor. "The company would rather fight workers tooth and nail than pay them what they deserve."
Cintas has a history of violating worker protection laws, including anti-discrimination, wage and hour, and safety laws. The company settled an overtime case brought by delivery drivers in California for more than $10 million in 2002. Since then, thousands of drivers across the country have joined a national overtime class action suit against Cintas.
The launderer has received the largest proposed OSHA fine ever assessed in the service sector for safety violations surrounding the death of Eleazar Torres Gomez in Oklahoma. This spring Cintas was the subject of hearings in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives regarding recurring health and safety citations. The company faces more than $3 million in penalties from federal and state safety agencies -- including a Cal/OSHA citation in its Stockton laundry.
Workers at Cintas Corporation began organizing with UNITE HERE and the Teamsters in 2003. UNITE HERE represents more nearly half a million workers in the United States and Canada, including more than 40,000 in the laundry industry. For more information on Cintas Corporation go to www.uniformjustice.org.
The Court of Appeal's decision is available at http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/A114510.DOC.
SOURCE UNITE HERE
