Law Offices of Timothy P. Rumberger
2161 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 200, Berkeley, California 94704-1313

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT by PACIFIC STEEL CASTING WORKERS for UNPAID WAGES

PRESS CONFERENCE 
WHEN: Friday, December 23, 2011 at 11:30 AM
WHERE: PACIFIC STEEL CASTING Headquarters 1302 Second Street, Berkeley, California

A class action lawsuit on behalf of approximately 1,000 current and former workers at Pacific Steel Casting Company was filed this Friday, December 23, 2011 in the Alameda County Superior Court.

Seeking over $30 million in unpaid wages and penalties on behalf of the class members, Roberto Rodriguez, a loyal employee for over 45 years at Pacific Steel Casting (PSC), hopes to hold the company accountable for its years of California labor law violations.

Class counsel, Berkeley civil rights and environmental attorney, Timothy P. Rumberger, who represents Mr. Rodriguez and hundreds of current and former PSC workers, states that during the 4-year Class Period, PSC has had a consistent policy of unlawfully failing to provide its employees statutorily-mandated meal and timely rest periods, and willfully failing to pay compensation due in a prompt and timely manner to the hundreds of class members whose employment with PSC has been terminated.

“Most employees are scheduled to work 6 ½ hours, or more, without a meal break on a daily basis. My clients perform physically challenging, skilled labor in dangerous, toxic environments. It is unconscionable that these men and women have been forced to endure decades of California labor law violations without the protections and just compensation they are entitled to receive,” Rumberger says.

 

 

Berkeley steel company accused of labor violations
Contra Costa Times, Dec. 24, 2011 4:50 PM

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — A Berkeley steel casting company that fired workers in response to a federal immigration audit has been sued by a former worker.

Roberto Rodriguez filed a $31 million class-action lawsuit against Pacific Steel on Friday on behalf of about 1,000 current and former workers. The lawsuit alleged the company failed to give timely meal and rest breaks to employees.

Although the suit is not over the firing of the workers, Rodriguez said that decision provided motivation for his lawsuit.

Pacific Steel began firing workers in October and expects to let 200 — a third of its workforce — go by the end of January. The workers were suspected of being in the country illegally by federal immigration officials, who audited the company's records.

Such audits of the I-9 forms new employees must fill out have been emphasized by the Obama administration in its effort to crackdown on companies with illegal hires over high-profile workplace raids conducted during the Bush administration.

The plant's union is protesting the audit and mass firings through the National Labor Relations Board, according to Oakland City Council member Ignacio De La Fuente, a union leader who has been representing Pacific Steel workers since the late 1970s.
Pacific Steel has said it did not invite the audit.

"It's been a very wrenching experience for the company to lose so many highly valued, highly skilled employees, some of whom have been there for decades," spokeswoman Elisabeth Jewel said earlier this month.

Rodriguez alleges that Pacific Steel violated a state law requiring a 30-minute meal break within each five hours of work. Pacific Steel workers have been regularly scheduled to work 6 1/2 hours or more without a meal break, according to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said he would tell his supervisors he was hungry before the break.

"They said, 'If you don't like it, there's the door, get out,'" he said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit on Friday.

Administrative workers at Pacific Steel's main office declined to comment on the lawsuit to the Contra Costa Times
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