LA Times: Inspectors find dirt on books at Southern Calif. carwashes

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-carwash23mar23,0,3592975.story


Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times
A worker at Blue Wave Car Wash in West Los Angeles washes a vehicle. A Times investigation has found that hand carwashes, automotive beauty shops patronized by tens of thousands of Southern California motorists every day, often brazenly violate basic labor and immigration laws, with little risk of penalty.

Owners frequently violate labor and immigration laws with little risk of penalty, officials say. Many workers are loath to complain, but some have formally accused their bosses of underpaying them.

By Sonia Nazario and Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
2:34 PM PDT, March 22, 2008

A team of state inspectors strode into the Blue Wave Car Wash in West Los Angeles, past latte-sipping customers in electric massage chairs and into the gritty carwash tunnel.

"¿Cuánto gana usted?" the inspectors asked worker after worker, about 20 of them, most Latino immigrants. How much do you make? Each carwashero responded that he earned minimum wage or more -- just as the owner of the Blue Wave, one of the region's busiest carwashes, had told the inspectors.

Looking over payroll records, however, the regulators became suspicious. Employees who said they were full time were listed as working just 10 or 15 hours a week.

Inspector Martha Mendoza ushered Juan Cruz Santiago, a small man with salt-and-pepper hair, away from the others. During gentle questioning under a ficus tree, he admitted that most days, he and his 66-year-old father worked for tips only. So did nearly half the other employees, he said. It had been that way for at least six years.

"It's bad," the 41-year-old Oaxacan immigrant whispered to Mendoza, his eyes darting nervously toward his boss' office. "Other carwashes are the same, no?"

Many are. A Times investigation has found that hand carwashes, automotive beauty shops patronized by tens of thousands of Southern California motorists every day, often brazenly violate basic labor and immigration laws, with little risk of penalty.

FULL story at link.

me (in So Cal):

Manager brings out a card table,chair, and a stack of paper currency. Workers lay down their rags and line up. As each worker reaches the front of the line, he receives a pre-counted amount of cash. There is no paperwork whatsoever.

More exploitation of cheap labor by corporate America and a government that has to mostly be looking the other way.