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November 7, 2004    DOL Home > Secretary Chao and and the Asian Pacific American Community   

Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and the Asian Pacific American Community

As the first American woman of Asian descent to be in a President's Cabinet, Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao has always stated her commitment and strong ties to this community. Since arriving in America at the age of eight without speaking a word of English, Secretary Chao has always believed in the promise of this country and its abundant opportunities.

Under the leadership of Secretary Chao, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) has made significant contributions to the advancement of the Asian Pacific American (APA) community through its human capital program, enforcement priorities, compliance assistance efforts and partnership activities.

Compliance Priorities in the APA Communities

The United States Department of Labor's has established a compliance priority in low-wage industries with chronic violations, where large numbers of immigrant workers, including Asian Pacific Americans, are employed. These workers are more willing to accept low-wages and less likely to complain to the government when their rights have been violated. To meet this challenge, the Department employed directed enforcement, aggressive compliance assistance to both workers and employers, and strategic partnerships to ensure compliance problems in these industries do not go unabated.

Enforcement

Last year, the United States Department of Labor direct enforcement efforts in low-wage industries, such as garment manufacturing, health care, janitorial services, restaurants and the hotel industries, yielded $39,595,382 in back wages for workers. Over 80,000 workers in these industries received back wages.

  • In February 2003, the Department reached a settlement in lawsuits filed against eleven Chicago area Chinese-style buffet restaurants. The settlement included payment of over $665,000 to more than 100 workers employed as busboys and kitchen help. The workers, mostly Asian and Hispanic, worked as many as 66 hours a week and were not paid overtime. In some instances, employees were paid less than minimum wage.
  • As a result of a series of legal actions, the Department enabled the distribution of more than $1.2 million in unpaid wages to nearly 250 garment workers employed in Northern California.
  • In February 2003 as a result of a Department of Labor investigation, Kilsoo Lee, owner of Daewoosa Samoa, Ltd., a garment factory in American Samoa, was found guilty of 14 criminal counts including involuntary servitude, forced labor, conspiracy to violate rights, extortion and money laundering. This successful criminal conviction proved that Lee and his managers conspired to use threats of arrest and deportation, food deprivation and beatings to force more than 200 Vietnamese and Chinese immigrant workers to operate the factory.
  • In December 2003, the Department announced an agreement with a manufacturer of baseball caps for Major League Baseball to pay $124,509 in back wages to 597 workers, most of whom where of Laotian, Vietnamese or Cambodian descent.

Record-Breaking Enforcement of Executive Order 11246

Executive Order 11246 tasks the Labor Department only with enforcing nondiscrimination in employment by government contractors and subcontractors. At the Department, enforcement is handled by the Office for Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). In fiscal year 2003, the OFCCP conducted the most Glass Ceiling Reviews in the history of the Glass Ceiling Audit Program. During these audits, OFCCP assessed whether the corporations erected a "glass ceiling" against all minorities, including Asian Pacific Americans.

  • In FY 2003, OFCCP completed 7,709 compliance evaluations covering over 2.5 million workers-more reviews and more covered workers than any year since 1991.
  • OFCCP completed 52 Corporate Management Reviews during FY 2003, a record number. Corporate Management Reviews ensure that all workers, including Asian Pacific Americans, have an equal opportunity to rise to management and executive positions.
  • OFCCP focused on systemic discrimination cases in FY 2003, obtaining settlements which provided $26,220,356 in financial remedies to 14,361 minority, including Asian Pacific Americans, and female workers.
  • In FY 2003, OFCCP referred 12 systemic discrimination cases to the Office of the Solicitor for enforcement litigation, involving $27.3 million in estimated liability and over 1,500 workers. The Solicitor's Office filed enforcement litigation in 5 OFCCP cases this year, with estimated liability of more than $6.2 million and involving more than 2,400 workers

Compliance Assistance

As more and more immigrants work and establish businesses in the United States, the United States Department of Labor has increased its compliance assistance to Asian business and community organizations. More materials and a greater number of compliance assistance tools are being translated by the Department into non-English languages. Last year, the Department translated nine of its key compliance assistance fact sheets into Korean including fact sheets that provide compliance information in the key low-wage industries. Additional materials in Chinese and Vietnamese have been developed and will be published shortly. These materials are helping to protect the physical and financial security of Asian Pacific Americans.

Strategic Partnerships

United States Department of Labor partnership and collaborative activities are used to leverage resources and broaden the impact of other strategies. Ongoing relationships and outreach with Department partners inform low-wage and immigrant workers of their rights and the remedies available to them. The Department has developed several successful partnership programs in the APA community.

The Information Group for Asian American Rights (TIGAAR)

The Information Group for Asian American Rights (TIGAAR) is a collaborative partnership in Houston, Texas, comprised of the United States Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the City of Houston Council, the Organization of Chinese Americans, VN Teamwork, Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, and the Japanese American Citizens League. TIGAAR's main objectives are:

  • To form a unique collaboration between government agencies and Asian American community organizations;
  • To educate the Asian American community about their rights under the laws enforced by the DOL and EEOC;
  • To educate Asian American Organizations and Advocacy Groups;
  • To educate Asian American community opinion leaders; and
  • To encourage Asian Americans to come forward with information that will solve their problems in the workplace.

Through March 2004, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division has used the enforcement component of the TIGAAR initiative to collect over $187,000 for 248 employees. The TIGAAR compliance assistance program includes a 23-minute video describing common wage and hour violations, workplace safety violations, and examples of employment discrimination. Another tool was twenty 6' x 12' billboards announcing the TIGAAR Web site, www.tigaar.org where additional information regarding employment rights can be obtained.

To better reach low-wage workers, the United States Department of Labor developed working relationships with local media outlets:

  • Saigon Houston Radio 900AM, the most popular Vietnamese-language radio show in Houston, for call-in programs to answer questions from the public in their own language;
  • Southern Chinese Daily News;
  • Houston Chinese Yellow Pages;
  • Houston Southern Chinese Radio Network;
  • Texas Asian Television and USAsia Today; and
  • VVOS (Vietnamese Voices Overseas) which broadcasts on Houston Time Warner Cable Network #17, "Live Talk Shows" on Vietnamese radios in Houston, and via an internet site at http://vvos.net to establish contacts to share information with the community.

Operation COACH (Compliance Outreach to the Asian Community and Hispanics)

The United States Department of Labor's office in northern New Jersey launched the Operation COACH (Compliance Outreach to the Asian Community and Hispanics) program. The COACH program broadens its significant compliance assistance program by going into the Asian and Hispanic communities and working directly with those employers and workers who traditionally have been reluctant to seek the Department's services. The main objectives of the COACH program are to:

  • Provide direct outreach to the Hispanic and Asian communities;
  • Expand partnerships with community centers; and,
  • Effectively use the media to promote the program.

Direct Outreach involves the Department's bilingual and Asian staff visiting employers, and reaching out to business and professional organizations, community centers, and faith-based worker advocates. This effort is to provide face-to-face outreach that takes place in a non-adversarial atmosphere.

Thus far, outreach has taken place in Hudson County with visits to businesses in Jersey City, North Bergen, Union City, Guttenberg, and West New York. Most of the employers visited identified their ethnicity as East Indian, Pakistani, Korean, Filipino, Arab or Hispanic. The effort resulted in direct contact with over 400 businesses employing more than 2,300 workers in Hudson County alone. Of these 49% were Hispanic-owned, 31% Asian-owned and 20% some other ethnicity. Sixty-five percent of the contacted employers told Department of Labor staff that they had no prior knowledge of the Department or any experience with the Department. This effort is ongoing and will continue with visits to Bergen and Passaic Counties where the targeted population will be Korean and Chinese.

Partnerships include outreach to professional associations and community and faith-based organizations so as to better reach low-wage APA workers. One result has been an event with the Jersey City Asian Merchants Association.

Currently, the Department is working with OSHA and State partners in an effort to sign formal partnerships with community centers (North Hudson Community Action Corp., Bergen County Community Action Program). Through these organizations, which provide health and child care services, job training and placement, family counseling, governmental referrals and other services, the Department finds new channels to help spread the COACH message to the immigrant employee population.

To date, one formal partnership agreement has been signed — with the Community Action for Social Affairs (CASA) in Paterson. The Department will be conducting worker seminars and installing permanent exhibits highlighting the COACH program. Compliance materials and information about the Department's Web-based programs and services will be made available for workers and others visiting these centers. The Department is also collaborating with Winds of the Spirit and The Paterson Archdiocese Migrant Ministries — two faith-based organizations who serve as worker advocates in local indigent APA communities.

Korean American Manufacturers Association (KAMA)

In July 2003, the United States Department of Labor and the Korean American Manufacturers Association (KAMA) in southern California launched an incentive-based partnership program. Pursuant to a signed Compliance Assistance Program Agreement, KAMA will closely monitor their garment subcontractors to ensure compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. Initially, a group of ten manufacturers began monitoring programs to review their subcontractors' pay practices. The Department has agreed to provide training covering all aspects of monitoring and assured manufacturers that, when certain conditions are met, the Department will not block movement and sale of goods when small, quickly corrected violations occur at one of their subcontractors.

Economic Development Initiatives for the Asian Pacific American Community

National Emergency Grants:

  • $1 million to Chinatown, New York to assist dislocated workers in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.
  • $200,000 to Chinatown Manpower Project, New York for dislocated worker training.
  • $584,700 to Georgia to assist workers who had been laid off from manufacturing closures. Many recipients are Thai Americans and Korean Americans with limited English abilities.

Project Funding and Assistance:

  • Recognizing that economic freedom and entrepreneurship are a foundation for individual success and prosperity, Secretary Chao allocated $9 million over five years to initiate the Growing America Through Entrepreneurship Project (Project GATE), a joint venture between the United States Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration. Project GATE places emphasis on working thorough community-based organizations and one-stop centers to reach historically underserved ethnic populations and help diverse urban and rural populations create, support and expand small businesses.
  • To meet the needs of all workers, the United States Department of Labor awarded a $6.1 million grant to the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging in Seattle, Washington where the Senior Community Service Program provides training for low-income workers age 55 and older. The grant will help subsidize part-time employment in community service positions that will prepare older workers for placement in unsubsidized jobs.
  • More than 1000 Asian Pacific American women attended workshops on financial security and retirement savings sponsored by the Department.
  • The Department designed a program called GEM-SET III to encourage and target Asian and Hispanic immigrant girls, ages 13-18, in Chicago, New York City, Houston, Miami, and Los Angeles in exploring careers in Science, Engineering, and Technology.

Association Health Plans (AHP): President Bush has called for enactment of Association Health Plan (AHP) legislation. Under the United States Department of Labor's oversight, AHPs would allow small businesses to band together across state lines and purchase affordable coverage for their employees. With an estimated 2 million Asian Pacific Americans lacking health insurance, the legislation will benefit Asian Pacific Americans in the workforce.

Worker Safety and Protection

Compliance Assistance: To provide employers, workers, job seekers, and retirees with clear and easy-to-access information on how to comply with federal employment laws, the United States Department of Labor has developed a toll-free participant and compliance assistance phone number in over 150 languages, including multiple Asian languages.

Pension Security: The United States Department of Labor provides compliance guides to help employers and employees understand federal benefits law and their rights and obligations under each pension plan.

Ensuring Worker Safety: To make non-English speaking workers aware of government services and labor rules, the United States Department of Labor has worker safety awareness materials available in Chinese and Vietnamese. To ensure the safety of youth workers, the Department also distributes Chinese language manuals to teen workers.

Creating Opportunities for the Growing Asian Pacific American Community

Appointments: Secretary Chao has appointed more Asian Pacific Americans to serve in top leadership positions at the United States Department of Labor than any other federal department leader.

Cultivating young leaders: To foster a new generation of leaders and promote diversity in the workforce, Secretary Chao established an internship program at the United States Department of Labor that has benefited over 50 Asian Pacific Americans. On July 27, 2004, Secretary Chao hosted a reception with Asian Pacific American interns in the Washington D.C. area to highlight careers in leadership and public service.

Career advancement: To help Asian Pacific Americans access career and leadership opportunities in the federal government, Secretary Chao initiated the annual Asian Pacific American Federal Career Advancement Summit in May 2001. Drawing over 850 federal employees in 2004, this unprecedented training program aims to equip government employees with the skill sets to become leaders in the American workforce. Secretary Chao also launched an innovative Mentoring Program to foster professional development for all Department of Labor employees.

Strengthening the community: Addressing the unique needs of the Asian Pacific and Hispanic American communities, the United States Departments of Labor and Housing and Urban Development partnered with federal agencies and non-profit organizations to host the first-ever Opportunities Conference on September 24-25, 2003. Workshops provided participants with information about small business development, accessing capital, doing business with the government, opportunities for faith-based and community organizations, and assistance to workers with limited English proficiency. The conference drew over 1,200 attendees from around the country, emphasizing key components of economic development including minority homeownership, education, advancement of small businesses, job creation and training, the event was designed to help small businesses, non-profit organizations, and community organizations play a leadership role in the American economy. The next conference will be held on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.

Other Accomplishments

Unemployment Data: To better serve the Asian Pacific American communities, the United States Department of Labor's monthly unemployment report includes, for the first time, specific data on Asian Americans.

Community Outreach: The United States Department of Labor has developed an alliance with the Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC) to broaden its outreach to the Asian Pacific American (APA) community and enable more Asian Pacific Americans to access training materials and develop skills critical to their advancement.

Translations: Under Secretary Chao's leadership, the United States Department of Labor's "Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act" has been translated into Korean and Department of Labor financial literacy workshops include translated Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation material, such as "Money Smart" in Chinese and Korean. The Department also issues translated White House briefings for Korean American businesses.

Learning the History: The Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) Web site features an interactive piece entitled "A Pictoral Walk Through the 20th Century — The Asian American in Mining." The dedication is concentrated on the contributions of Chinese miners in the gold fields of the American West and MSHA has plans to feature other Asian American groups in the future.

Career Training for older Asian Pacific Americans: The United States Department of Labor sponsored a project in cooperation with CVS/pharmacy to assist older Asian Pacific American women obtain jobs with CVS/pharmacy by providing training in basic life and computer skills.



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