Korean Worker Gets$73,000 Settlement

[KeJia Sista]

ëKorean Workers Right Projectí Korean worker $73,000 settlement, YKASECís Expanded Outreach to Chinese Workers in Flushing (Korea Daily, 2005-04-09)


A Korean worker (70 yrs) who worked at a New York City grocery store for 12 years won a major settlement, receiving $73,000 to settle his claim for his unpaid overtime wages. YKASEC and AALDEF announced this achievement at a joint press conference. According to YKASEC Mr. Kim (70 yrs) worked at a Korean grocery store as a cashier 7 days a week (84 hours) with a weekly wage of $500 without getting paid overtime. After getting fired last year, Mr. Kim was assisted by the Korean Workers Right Project, a joint project of YKASEC and AALDEF, to demand unpaid overtime wages upon the employer and subsequently winning a settlement.

Steve Choi, Director of the Korean Workers Right Project stated that this case is a victory not only for Mr. Kim but for all Korean workers under the similar circumstances and that low wage workersí rights are still being ignored, however, since the law is protecting those rights the Korean workersí should claim those rights.

Yu Soung Mun, ED of YKASEC addressed that the employer also agreed to sign the New York State Attorney Generalís ëCode of Conductí after the settlement and that considering the fact that 18% of the Korean community in New York & New Jersey are undocumented immigrants and 70% are limited English proficient, there may be many other Korean workers in similar circumstances with Mr. Kim.

YKASEC announced the expansion of Korean Workers Right Project to reach out to and provide basic legal services for workers in the rapidly growing Chinese community in Flushing. Mr. Mun stated that YKASEC is very excited about the new initiatives for Chinese workers in the Flushing community.

뉴욕 70대 한인 ë노동자 권익 프로젝트í (중앙, 2005-04-09)


73,000불 받기로

12년간 한인 그로서리에서 일해오며 오버타임을 제대로 받지 못한 70세 한인 남성이 업주로부터 7만3000달러의 보상금을 받기로 합의했다. 청년학교와 아시안아메리칸법률교육재단(AALDEF)은 8일 공동 기자회견을 갖고 이같이 밝혔다. 청년학교에 따르면 김모(70)씨는 12년간 한인 그로서리에서 캐셔 등으로 주 7일, 84시간씩 일해왔으나 500달러의 주급만 받고 별도의 오버타임을 받지 못했다. 지난해 업소에서 일방적으로 해고를 당한 김씨는 청년학교와 AALDEF 두 단체가 공동으로 실시중인 ë한인 노동자 권익 프로젝트í의 도움을 받아 해당 업주를 대상으로 소송을 제기했으며 최근 법정 밖 합의를 이끌어 낸 것.

노동자 권익 프로젝트를 총괄하는 변호사 스티븐 최 디렉터는 ì이번 케이스는 김씨 뿐 아니라 그와 비슷한 처지에 놓여있는 뉴욕시 한인 노동자 모두의 승리î라며 ì저임금 노동자의 권리가 여전히 무시되고 있지만 관련 법률이 이를 엄격히 금지하고 있는 만큼 한인들은 자신의 권리를 주장해야 한다î고 밝혔다.

청년학교 문유성 사무국장은 ì업주는 보상금 지급 이외에도 뉴욕주검찰의 ë업주경영쥬칙(Code of Conduct)í에 서명하기로 합의했다î며 ì뉴욕?뉴저지 일대 한인 인구의 18%가 불법체류자이고, 70%는 영어 구사 능력이 떨어지는 현실을 감안할 때 지금도 많은 한인이 김씨와 같은 처지에 놓여 있을 것으로 본다î고 말했다.

[xian]

I'd be interested in the ethnicity of the owner of the korean grocery store. I find that labor violations are much less interesting to the justice system when they are perpetrated by a major white-owned corporation as opposed to a small business or company owned by POC.

[KeJia Sista]

True. But in NYC you have tens of thousands probably more non-White biz owners exploiting their often-undocumented countrypeople and in other cases exploiting undocumented workers who are not their countrypeople.

When you are working 12-14 hour days or 6 day work weeks, it doesnt matter which bloodsuckers teeth are in your neck.

In a lot of cases, like sweatshops for example, White folks never even see the exploited workers, they contract out to our own people who do the day to day exploiting.

If you are a small business (and all of these cases are not small) and you can only survive with exploited labor, maybe you need to keep the biz within your family which is what mom and pop stores orginally did.

Ke Jia

[BoondockSaints]

This is just another example of the Asian work ethic. The grocery store owner probably worked 7 days a week as well. My dad used to own a store and he worked 7 days a week and he expected his employees to do the same.

[KeJia Sista]

This is just another example of the Asian work ethic. The grocery store owner probably worked 7 days a week as well. My dad used to own a store and he worked 7 days a week and he expected his employees to do the same.

If you are a storeowner, you have the right to work 7 days a week. You might even have the right to force your wife, kids and parents to work 7 days a week; because they are going to benefit from the fruits of your labor. You don't have the right to force workers to work excessive hours and for low pay so that you may purchase a nice home for your family while your workers can only afford to live in a cubicle.

Ke Jia

[seoulbrotherno1]

BTW: That's my man spearheading the worker's rights project, Choi Kyung Han. We were sure that fool was gonna sell out after spending all those years at Harvard Law. Props to him, and props to that 할아버지 (grandfather) for getting his overtime pay.

Xian makes a point about how the government will be quick to side against POC small business owners, but if they don't want to be vunerable, they need to stop exploiting the fuck outta their own kind. It is filthy dog-eat-dog opportunism of the worst kind. Who the fuck comes to America to become a race traitor?

sb1