Oakland, Calif. – Thousands of security officers that protect Kaiser Permanente hospitals and other facilities are due to receive a share of $4 million under a settlement with Inter-Con Security, according to Service Employees International Union SEIU Local 24/7.
In September 2006, security officers working to form a union with SEIU brought suit to recover wages for time they were required to work without pay by Inter-Con Security, Kaiser Permanente’s private security contractor. The lawsuit received class action status in April 2007. The initial settlement papers were filed today in U.S. District Court of Northern California.
“We started forming a union with SEIU to improve our jobs and our lives and along the way we’ve cleaned up our little corner of the notoriously lawbreaking private security industry,” said Eddie Dorci, Inter-Con security officer at a Kaiser Permanente facility in Oakland.
Inter-Con has repeatedly threatened, harassed, and intimidated security officers attempting to form a union with SEIU, according to charges filed with the federal Labor Board.
The $4 million settlement results from state and federal charges that Inter-Con Security forced security officers to work “off-the-clock” without pay, among other violations of state law.
The settlement is the latest in a growing number of lawsuits over unlawful employment practices, known as “wage and hour” claims, involving the practices of security and janitorial subcontractors of major U.S. corporations. Subcontractors are sometimes used by companies to avoid liability for unlawful practices.
“This settlement—and the others before it—shows irresponsible contractors can no longer get away with an ‘anything goes’ philosophy that drive workers and families deeper into poverty,” said Orrin Baird, SEIU Associate General Counsel. “More and more we’re seeing major corporations being held accountable for doing business with unscrupulous employers.”
On Monday Sept 17, 2007, nearly 500 janitors who cleaned UPS facilities, hotels, and other properties in Illinois and Texas won a $1.2 million settlement. The janitors, who will receive varying amounts up to $50,000 from the settlement, were employed by cleaning firms which contracted with UPS and other major corporations to provide services in Chicago, Dallas and San Antonio.
In 2005, two thousand mostly Latino janitors in California won a class action settlement totaling $22.4 million—the largest settlement of its kind—involving the failure of janitorial subcontractors to comply with federal employment laws. The janitors involved in the lawsuit—also initiated by SEIU—were employed by subcontractors of the national supermarket chains Safeway, Vons, Albertsons, and Ralph’s and received as much as $10,000 each as part of the settlement.