Business
U.S. Embargoes Daewoosa Exports
Workers’ Brawl Adds to Garment Plant’s Woes.
Garments manufactured by Daewoosa Samoa in American Samoa have been labeled "hot goods" and embargoed as part of an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor into alleged wage violations at the factory. The action follows but is not related to a brawl between Samoan and Vietnamese workers in late November. The DOL action was prompted by its investigation into Daewoosa’s possible violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for allegedly not paying its workers according to minimum wage and/or overtime pay requirements.
In June 1999, DOL imposed similar sanctions against the lone garment factory in American Samoa while it investigated alleged FLSA violations. The investigation resulted in a severe fine against the company. On Dec. 8, DOL’s Employment Standards Administration/Wage and Hour Division informed Daewoosa owner Kil-Soo Lee of the new embargo. "We have found apparent FLSA violations" from January 1 to December 8, 2000 "that resulted in the goods of your firm being made ‘hot goods’ for purposes of the FLSA," wrote DOL investigator Astor L. Bruhier.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
 |
|
|
The embargo on Daewoosa’s garments deals another blow to the financially strapped company by prohibiting "any person including any firm from selling or shipping, in interstate or foreign commerce any goods that have been worked on in violation of FLSA minimum wage and/or overtime pay requirements."
The embargo notice against Daewoosa came just days after the November 28 melee between the company’s Vietnamese and Samoan workers that sent 11 Vietnamese workers to the hospital. One woman, described only as "Ms. Quyen", lost an eye. Six affidavits from Vietnamese workers, given to police, state that Lee ordered Samoan workers to beat up any Vietnamese worker refusing to work or disobeying policies. The Vietnamese claim that Samoan workers beat them using "weapons".
Lee and Daewoosa assistant production manager Nuuuli Ioane, who was at the center of the incident with Quyen, denied the allegations. Ioane said Samoan workers work in the packing division where there are no "scissors or garment cutters". He said it was the Vietnamese workers who rushed him with scissors and cutters as he led Quyen out of the factory after she refused to work. He also told Pacific Magazine that the very few Samoan workers at the plant rushed to separate the Vietnamese workers that were attacking him. "The Samoan workers did not come to beat the Vietnamese," he added.
Vietnamese workers went to court asking for back pay and return tickets to Vietnam shortly after the incident. Although the court ordered Lee to pay for the return fares of the Vietnamese workers, the issue of wages, now part of the DOL investigation, will be ironed out at a trial in early 2001. Governor Tauese Sunia warned Lee to either shape up or his company will be shut down. Sunia told reporters that he believes this is a one-time incident because Vietnamese and Samoan workers work well together.
