9 FORMER WORKERS SUE A BROOKLYN SUPERMARKET FOR BACK PAY

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
The New York Times
May 25, 2006

Nine former employees of a Brooklyn supermarket have filed a suit accusing the store and its
owners of forcing them to work long hours with no breaks, paid only in customer tips.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court on Tuesday afternoon, seeks $1.56 million in back
pay and overtime from the supermarket's parent company, Bogopa Service Corporation, and
its chief executive, Hwee Ill An, in addition to interest on the wages and lawyers' fees.

The nine employees, all from Central and South America, worked as grocery baggers at the
Food Bazaar supermarket from as early as 1998 until November 2005, when the store
abruptly fired the eight who still worked there. They worked 50 to 66 hours a week, for
which, according to the lawsuit, the store paid them nothing. They earned as little as $100 a
week in tips.

"The worst days were when there were a lot of customers, because we had to work so hard,"
said Angel Pacheco, 62, speaking through an interpreter. Mr. Pacheco said he earned $150 to
$200 a week in tips, working six days a week before he was fired last October, about a month
before the others.

"Sometimes, a customer would come back and say something was missing from the bag, and
the manager would make us pay for the item," he said. For a time, he added, managers
required each bagger to contribute $2 a week for cleaning supplies to keep the cashier aisles
clean.

Dinora Aybar, 43, another plaintiff, said that she worked seven days a week, making $100 to
$125. "When it was busy, we couldn't stop to eat, we couldn't go to the bathroom," she said.
"The cashiers could take breaks, but we couldn't."

In a statement, the general counsel for Bogopa, Shaun Reid, denied that "any wages are due
any employee," and said that all the company's employees were paid above minimum wage
and given free health care. "We intend to vigorously defend this matter," he said. Reached by
phone, Mr. Reid declined to say whether the company considered the plaintiffs to have been
formally employed by the supermarket, saying that the company had not yet been served
with papers and had not had a chance to "fully investigate this matter."

But officials at the Urban Justice Center and at the National Mobilization Against
Sweatshops, or NMASS, a labor advocacy group that helped organize the lawsuit, said that
the Food Bazaar case reflected a growing problem of labor abuses in businesses like
supermarkets and hotels.

"Through this lawsuit, these workers will make sure that the frontiers of justice extend to
Wyckoff Avenue, to Brooklyn, and hopefully to New York City," said David Colodny, a senior
attorney with the center.

Mr. Pacheco, who became a member of NMASS in 1999, alerted the group to the firings last
year.

The nine plaintiffs are being represented by Outten & Golden, an employment law firm, and
the Urban Justice Center, a legal services and advocacy organization for the poor.

Through their lawyers, the workers declined to specify their immigration status. "It's
irrelevant to their legal claim," said Cara E. Greene, an Outten & Golden lawyer working on
the case.

The workers gave a variety of reasons for staying at the jobs for so long despite the meager
pay and poor treatment they allege in the lawsuit. Some said they had difficulty finding other
work outside their heavily Hispanic neighborhood of Bushwick. Most of the workers are
middle-aged or older, and a few said they had medical problems that ruled out jobs in
construction or similar trades.

Maria Rodriguez, 60, who spent about 18 months as a bagger after moving to the United
States from the Dominican Republic three years ago, said she first went to the store as a
customer. Later, she asked a friend to help her get a job there, not knowing what it would be
like.

"I didn't think I would only get tips," Ms. Rodriguez said. "But there was nothing else I could
find in the community. I just stayed there."

Their lawyers said that none were aware of minimum wage laws, and the suit alleges that the
supermarket did not post notices of those laws, as required. "It was my first job when I came
to this country, and I didn't know the regulations," Ms. Aybar said. "I knew people in the
community, and I needed a job. I took this one, and the years just passed by."

                                                          Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company