AMERICAN SAMOA

Sweatshop Fined

From Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 26 May 2001

Daewoosa Samoa Ltd, a garment manufacturer that closed down in January after a scandal about working conditions that prompted one US official to compare its workers with the living dead (see ALU 38).

The company faces a fine of $78,500, a federal agency said yesterday.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Daewoosa for 28 alleged safety and health violations at its Tafuna facility which employed about 250 people.

After an investigation of the facility, OSHA assessed Daewoosa with $30,000 in fines for 11 alleged violations of sanitation facilities, fire alarms, and fire exits. The remaining 17 violations were less serious.

Daewoosa’s owner, Kil-Soo Lee of South Korea, was also accused of unsanitary conditions in kitchen and eating areas, overcrowding in dormitories, and failing to control rodent and insect infestation in workers’ living quarters.

The FBI arrested Lee in March for alleged involuntary servitude and threatening Vietnamese factory workers with serious physical harm or restraint.

The FBI had filed a complaint in a Honolulu federal court after finding the temperature in the work places reached 104° F (40° C) and workers were not paid for periods of three to six months, among other things.

“The conditions under which these workers worked were beyond comprehension,” said U.S. Labour Secretary Elaine Chao.

Daewoosa Samoa had manufactured men’s sportswear for companies including J C Penney.