Since 1996, XOXO has been cited six times by the U.S. Department of Labor for violations of labor laws, including minimum wage, overtime, and child labor. Unfortunately, this case is only one of countless glaring examples of what is wrong with the garment industry. Garment manufacturers, even those cited repeatedly by government enforcement agencies for violations of labor laws, make standard business practice of denying workers the wages they are owed, while they reap huge profits off the workers labor. XOXO s rap sheet of worker abuses is par for the course in the garment industry, stated Muneer Ahmad, Staff Attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which is representing the twelve workers. For a period of several years, plaintiffs labored in a sewing shop in downtown Los Angeles, and typically toiled six days a week, nine or more hours a day.
Plaintiffs seek to recover back wages, statutory penalties, and damages.
XOXO sells very expensive clothes, but pays very little, or nothing, to the workers who have labored to make these clothes. I am not the first garment worker to experience this. It is very common that we work so hard, and are not paid minimum wage or overtime. Los Angeles is the sweatshop capital of the state and nation, with over 150,000 workers many of whom are not paid minimum wage or overtime as is required under state and federal labor laws. This lawsuit and the Department of Labor study reveal the dirty truth that sweatshop conditions in the Los Angeles garment industry, long plagued by sweatshop scandals, are no better today than they were six years ago.