Los Angeles Times Coverage

Pay cuts at immigration office probed - Labor Department opens an investigation after a new contractor reduces wages in Laguna Niguel and Vermont.

By H.g. Reza
November 29, 2007

The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating whether the company that employs workers who process immigration and citizenship applications in Orange County violated federal regulations by cutting their pay under a new contract that begins next week.

Nearly a third of the 600 employees at the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Laguna Niguel, which handles paperwork from around the world, will have their wages reduced -- in some cases by more than $7 an hour -- when the new contractor takes over Monday.

Nearly half of the 400 workers covered under the same contract in St. Albans, Vt., also will have their wages cut.

Many of the California and Vermont employees have worked at the immigration agency for years under different companies. Although the non-union employees work in the federal buildings, the government outsources the jobs to a private company. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security, in September awarded the new contract to Virginia-based Stanley Associates Inc., which Fortune magazine called one of the 100 best companies to work for.

Labor Department spokesman David James confirmed the investigation in an e-mail but declined further comment.

Employees in Laguna Niguel have been picketing in front of the Chet Holifield Federal Building for two weeks. The salary reductions and their effect on morale come as officials are wading through a backlog of immigration and citizenship applications filed over the summer.

Bill Crisp, 59, said he has been a quality control inspector at the Laguna Niguel office for seven years, earning $20.22 an hour. Beginning Monday, he said, he will earn $12.98 an hour -- about 36% less -- in a new job as a data entry clerk.

"My wife doesn't work. How are we suppose to pay rent, eat and live on a salary that's been cut more than $7 an hour? Is this fair?" Crisp said.

Alison Nguyen, a data entry clerk, said she was told her new hourly pay will be $10.69, a drop of $2.29.

"I've got to quit and move back with my parents. I can't afford to pay for rent and gas at that rate," she said.

Although many of the Laguna Niguel employees were picketing on their off time, several said they were afraid to talk to a reporter for fear of retaliation from Stanley. That concern rose after Kristy Tran, an inspector, said that the company rescinded a job offer after she had organized the protest.

Source: Los Angeles Times