U.S. Cites Labor Law Violators in Garment Industry

In its latest campaign against sweatshops, the Labor Department on Friday released for the first time a national list of clothing contractors that were cited for labor law violations, as well as the manufacturers that enlisted their work.

The department said the 27-page report, titled “No Sweat,” was prepared at the request of apparel retailers, who have been pressured by federal investigators to bear responsibility for abuses in the garment industry, especially in the wake of the infamous El Monte case in which workers toiled in near-slavery conditions.

The report covers inspections conducted between October and March, during which the Labor Department collected $1.3 million in back wages for more than 3,400 workers. The wages were paid by about 100 contractors as well as some of the 230 manufacturers on the list. Most of these garment businesses are in New York and Southern California and include such well-known Los Angeles-area manufacturers as Rampage, Top Ten and Quiksilver.

A Santa Ana firm, Fantasy Manufacturing, topped the list, paying more than $78,000 in overtime wages and fines.

Maria Echaveste, head of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, said the report is not intended to be definitive or to say that the apparel makers on the list are bad manufacturers.

Nevertheless, she said such inspection reports, to be released quarterly from now on, could serve as a tool for retailers.

“The key is how many of these names consistently appear on the list. That should be a warning light to retailers as well as manufacturers,” she said in an interview Friday.

The report comes five months after the Labor Department released a list of “good guy” apparel retailers and manufacturers. That list was intended to help consumers by spotlighting companies seen as taking extra steps to ensure their garments are made in law-abiding shops. But the roster drew fire for containing just 31 businesses, and then it was criticized because some on the list were later found to be using questionable contractors.

Steve Pfister of the National Federation of Retailers, which was among those critical of the “good guy” list, said Friday that he had not yet carefully read the new report.

But Pfister, who is vice president of legislative and political affairs, said the report isn’t what his group asked for. Rather than a mere list of manufacturers, Pfister said, the association had requested more detailed information--for example, size, colors and lot numbers of shipments--so retailers could trace clothes made by sweatshops.

Without such information, he said, retailers often have no way of knowing who made what and when, because they buy countless pieces made by manufacturers who in turn farm out work to a vast network of contractors.

Still, Pfister said Friday’s report is “at least a start. It provides some kind of road map.”

The report shows that a number of manufacturers on the list have agreed to monitor their contractors for future compliance, which has been a major focus of the federal government’s strategy to combat garment industry abuses.

Federal officials said the latest report also confirms that contractors and manufacturers are routinely violating minimum-wage and overtime laws.

The report indicates that from October to March, the department conducted 476 garment investigations that found in 222 violations--an almost 50% rate. New York logged the highest rate of violation, at 60%, and also accounted for $593,327 in total back wages collected.

In the Los Angeles area, about half the 161 investigations during the six-month period turned up violations, with investigators collecting $447,532 in back wages for 1,353 workers.