Manufacturer Raided, Sued for California Overtime Violations

Fullerton, CAA manufacturer in California that was the target of a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this summer is now the subject of a lawsuit claiming, among other unfair practices, violations of overtime pay laws.


KABC News 7 in Los Angeles reported August 31st on the announcement that morning of a lawsuit launched by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU) and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles against Terra Universal, located in Fullerton, California. The lawsuit alleges the defendant required workers to work long hours in spite of unpaid overtime.

An enforcement raid conducted June 29th resulted in the detainment of 43 individuals under suspicion of being in the country illegally--in spite of statements by Terra at the time that they believed the workers to be in the country legally.

As for the alleged violation of California overtime law, Hugo Alcantar Fernandez of Fullerton said via a translator, "I'd regularly work more than eight hours and they wouldn't pay me overtime. But the worse thing was that [Terra owner George Sadaghiani] would personally come up to you and treat you badly," Fernandez, 28, said in comments published August 31st in the Orange County Register. "[Sadaghiani] would come up to your face and call us stupid to our face. He made you feel like nothing."

Fernandez was employed as a polypropylene welder at the company. The ACLU complaint alleges that workers suspected of being in the US illegally were required to work anywhere from 12 to 14 hours on a daily basis without overtime pay. It is alleged that the company required targeted workers to punch out after 8 hours, and then clock back in as if starting a second day.