Aug. 27, 2004 – The US Department of Labor ordered a contractor for the Target Corporation to pay $1.9 million in back pay after uncovering that the contractor had not paid overtime or workers' compensation insurance for hundreds of immigrants who worked cleaning Target stores in several states.
Sign up to receive NewStandard headlines and extras by e-mail weekday mornings!
Many of the janitors worked every night and some were only 15 or 16 years old, according to a two-year investigation into the practices of California-based Global Building Services.
Felipe Aguilar, who said he worked about 80 hours a week cleaning five Target stores in Southern California for less than $4 an hour, told the New York Times, "In my three years there, they gave me very few days off. And when I came back after being out injured for two weeks, the company said: ‘We can't take you back. Someone else is working in your place.’"
His wife, Claudia, who also worked at Target, told the Times, "We felt bad about the pay; sometimes we felt rage, but we were scared to complain because we needed the job."
