Economic Justice for Workers
AALDEF’s Economic Justice Program provides legal representation, legal advocacy, and community education support to Asian immigrant communities on workers’ rights and economic justice issues. Despite their pivotal role in the U.S. economy, immigrant workers confront daily challenges in the labor force: language barriers, exploitative working conditions, immigration status vulnerabilities, and restrictions in access to public services and benefits.
For nearly 50 years, AALDEF has employed innovative legal strategies to protect immigrant workers and enforce labor and employment laws. We have won millions of dollars in back wages and overtime pay for low-wage immigrant workers, and have secured federal rulings that have expanded the ability of workers to hold their employers accountable for violations of worker protection laws.
Highlights:
- In 1980, we represented Chinese restaurant workers at Silver Palace in NYC, who were fired for protesting against their employer stealing their tips. We also assisted the workers in forming the first independent Chinatown restaurant workers’ union.
- We represented many immigrant garment workers, who endured poverty wages and sweatshop conditions, to hold clothing manufacturers and factory owners liable for minimum wage and overtime pay violations—including in 1998 when we filed a lawsuit on behalf of Chinese immigrant garment workers, and in 2003 when we represented Asian and Latino garment workers in a federal lawsuit against Donna Karan International.
- Throughout the last several decades, we represented dozens of immigrant women domestic workers who were trafficked to the United States by their employers. In addition to securing immigration relief for our clients, we also secured millions of dollars in back wages for their labor.
- In 2019, we represented a group of Korean and Latino restaurant workers and won a federal appeals court decision to hold their employer accountable for fraudulently transferring properties and assets to avoid paying the workers a $2.7 million wage theft judgment.
Program Priorities:
- Litigation, in partnership with worker centers, to enforce labor and employment laws.
- Advocacy, in coalition with community groups and other advocates, to improve laws that impact low-wage immigrant workers.
- Know Your Rights workshops and legal clinics to educate workers about their legal rights and empower them to fight for fair and just labor standards and working conditions.
- Legal advice and legal services to workers suffering from severe workplace exploitation.
Related
- What Are My Rights as a Worker?
What Are My Rights as a Worker?
- Nepali workers sue restaurant ‘Taste of Everest’ for back wages and damages
- Migrant workers file federal unfair labor practice charges against Georgia warehouse operator
- Filipino immigrant nurses targeted with coercive “stay or pay” contracts secure settlement with their former employers
- Filipino nurses seek National Labor Relations Board review of repressive CommuniCare employment contracts
- Workers sue Chinese restaurant ‘Sichuan Taste’ for more than $230,000 over wage theft and retaliation
- AALDEF Statement on Justice for George Floyd
- AALDEF testifies at NYS Senate Committee hearing on workers in the gig economy
- Federal appeals court affirms that restaurant owner fraudulently conveyed properties to avoid paying $2.7 million wage theft judgment
- Korean and Latino workers win $2.67 million judgment from Kum Gang San restaurant in NYC
- NYC Chinatown garment workers win $1.2 million in damages for labor law violations
- Korean Immigrant Worker Wins $30,000 Settlement for Overtime from Jin Go Gae Restaurant
- Jing Fong Banquet Hall Brought Back to Court for Labor Violations
- $17.5K Back-Wage Win for Nail Salon Worker
- AALDEF Korean Workers Project Announces $73,000 Settlement for Grocery Store Worker
Press Release
- AsAmNews: Immigrant nurses “penalized” for quitting work reach settlement
- AsAmNews: Healthy nail Salon bill potentially blocked for the third year
- The Guardian: ‘I feel like a criminal for quitting’: nurses in the US fight ‘stay or pay’ agreements
- AsAmNews: Filipino immigrant nurses file charges over unfair contract
- Patch: Ex-Malden Restaurant Hit With Lawsuit Alleging Wage Theft, Retaliation
- AsAmNews: Chinese restaurant workers file $230K lawsuit over wage theft, retaliation
- NBC News: Wage theft cases can be easy to win. Collecting is a different story.
- China Daily: Chinatown garment workers awarded $1.2 million
- “For $2-an-Hour Restaurant Deliverymen, a $4.6 Million Judgment” – New York Times
News
- Economic Justice