Jury Says Chinese-Language Newspaper Violated Labor Laws
By Nao Gunji
Rafu English Assistant Editor
Saturday, Jan. 20, 2007

Plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Chinese Daily News awarded $2.5 million.

A Los Angeles federal court jury found that Chinese Daily News violated federal and state labor laws and awarded $2.5 million to a plaintiff class of 200 former and current employees.

Last Wednesday, the jury found that the company failed to pay overtime and allow meal and rest breaks to its reporters, advertising salespeople and hourly employees in the period of 2000 to 2005 at the company’s Monterey Park facility.

Plaintiff’s attorney Randy Renick said in a statement, “The jury has agreed that overtime laws were intended to prevent unscrupulous employers, like Chinese Daily News, from refusing to pay its employees for all of the hours they work.”

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2004 by three employees, including a reporter, Lynne Wang, who had worked at the company for 18 years. Wang was fired six days after she made a deposition against her employer. She complained that they routinely worked 10 to 12 hours a day, often six days a week without getting paid overtime.

During an interview in August 2003, Wang told The Rafu Shimpo, “Ninety percent of the workers at Chinese Daily News are first-generation immigrants. They don’t know too much about the law of America. They are afraid of losing their job, and the company employer is taking advantage of that.”

Today, unemployed and looking for another reporting job, she has mixed feelings about the victory.

“I rushed to the court to hear the verdict,” she said. “I felt happy (with the verdict), but the justice came so late. It was so hard to get and we had to sacrifice so much.”

Wang, 53, believes that the verdict will send a message to foreign-based businesses not to take advantage of new immigrant workers.

Mark Palin, the newspaper’s attorney, told City News Service that the verdict did not complete the case. “There are still legal and factual issues to be determined by the court,” he said.

Wang has spoken to some of her former colleagues since last Wednesday, she said. They thanked her for the effort she made to bring the case to light despite the fact that some of the workers felt lucky just to have a job in the United States.

“I hope they will change, they should change,” she said, when asked about the company’s future.

“If they change (the reporter shift) to 8 hours a day, I might apply again. I like to be a reporter, but I don’t know if they will let me go back to work or not,” the journalist said, smiling.

Chinese Daily News is the largest Chinese-language newspaper in North America with a daily circulation of 30,000. Also known as the World Journal, it has regional offices in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

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