Some garment factories scheme to evade monitors
There were still plenty of eyes on the factory: government regulators and monitors hired by big-name retailers to look for labor violations. Yet state labor officials who raided the shop in July said all those people who had been watching missed something — that its owners had shortchanged workers of $3 million in wages since 2005.
Monitoring programs created in the 1990s to counteract the public's outrage over sweatshops led to a new breed of scofflaws — schemers who learned to deceive their monitors in a more sophisticated fashion.
"There is an increase in contractors devising schemes to hide the violations," said New York Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith. "It shows the need for really aggressive enforcement."
"We've heard about folks floating around China, giving courses on how to beat the inspection programs," said Judy Gearhart, program director for Social Accountability International, a group that certifies monitoring groups worldwide.
Among the allegations by authorities: Employees put in up to 70 hours a week while punching multiple timecards to hide their overtime. The company repeatedly changed names to avoid investigation. Workers, mostly Chinese-speaking immigrants, were even given cheat sheets, telling them how to answer questions from labor inspectors.
The cheat sheets, in Chinese, instructed workers to say they couldn't remember the details of their schedules, but always made at least $7.75 per hour.
If asked whether they liked the job, they were to respond: "I am happy here. We get along with our boss. He is very nice to us and treats us well."
Labor experts said the case illustrates the limitations of public and private programs put in place to monitor garment factories for labor abuses.
San Diego State University professor Jill Louise Esbenshade, who studied the garment industry in Southern California, said infractions are still rampant. One California survey found that more than half of the shops in monitoring programs were out of compliance with labor law.
Part of the problem, she said, was that employees had little incentive to reveal violations.
"Workers were regularly coached by contractors that if they revealed violations, everyone would get into trouble. The brand would pull the work. They would close down and no one would get paid anyway," Esbenshade said.
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