Adam Bulger

Former employees accuse Chang's Garden of unfair working conditions.

Customer reviews for Chang's Garden in Mansfield are glowing, but former employees don't have such good things to say about the Chinese restaurant, which is across the road from the University of Connecticut's main campus.

A lawsuit filed by eight former Chang's employees allege that, behind a benign public facade, the restaurant's immigrant staff was forced to work in cruel conditions. The lawsuit, filed on May 13 with assistance from Yale University law school students and professors, outlines a history of grueling 70-hour work weeks and rock-bottom wages.

According to the suit, immigrants found work at the restaurant through employment agencies in Manhattan and Flushing, New York. They reportedly boarded a bus in Manhattan's Chinatown for Connecticut, with many of them not knowing where or even what Connecticut actually is.

"They got the name of a contact person, the name of the business and a phone number and bus directions," said Jei Fong, an organizer for Chinese Staff and Workers' Association, a New York immigrant labor rights group. "As far as knowing what working and living conditions they were going to have, they didn't find out until they got there."

Once in Connecticut, they were allegedly housed in the basement of Chang's co-owner, Le Shih Chang, located in an isolated suburban town. The suit notes that the 1,000-square-foot living space had five bedrooms, two toilets and sleeping quarters for eight workers. According to the suit, the basement was "infested with rats and cockroaches, the kitchen sink was non-functional and the bathroom ceiling was leaking."

The suit says that working conditions were no better. The workers say they worked 70-hour weeks, with some paid as little as $4.45 an hour, and were allowed only two 10-minute breaks a day. Despite the long hours, they say that overtime pay wasn't offered.

The workers' isolation in Le Shih Chang's home and their inexperience with the language made it difficult to alert officials to their treatment, they say. "What's especially troubling to me is that this seems to have been the business model of this restaurant," said supervising attorney Michael Wishnie of Yale's Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization. "It seems to be chronic and that's how they do business."

One of the plaintiffs, Bing Wu, was fired from Chang's in 2004, and subsequently got a job at a New Jersey restaurant, where conditions were reportedly similar to Chang's Garden. Wu then started working with the Chinese Staff and Worker's Association.

"He'd previously been involved in a similar case where they weren't paid any wages at all, and were forced to rely on tips," Fong said.

On Tuesday, May 16, several of the plaintiffs and their supporters from labor and immigrant rights groups converged outside the restaurant. Holding signs like "Daily Specials At Chang's Garden: 12 hour shifts, no minimum wage and tip stealing," about 20 protesters chanted in the parking lot of Chang's Garden. Yale law students served the owners the lawsuit. The owners didn't step outside or speak with the press. (They also did not respond to later requests for comment.)

In halting English, Wu said that the restaurant forced him and his co-workers to work 70 hours a week for less than $5 an hour.

Although the protest felt isolated, Fong said there are dozens of similar incidents across the country. Fong added that CSWA was behind dozens of workers' rights lawsuits in New York alone.

"In New York, a fire's been sparked," Fong said. "Now there are dozens of restaurants with hundreds of workers coming out and demanding better working conditions."

Fong said that there have been many lawsuits filed by immigrant employees against restaurants in the last couple of years. In some cases, undocumented workers might be reluctant to speak with officials for fear of deportation. But immigrant labor issues are quietly coming into the spotlight nationwide. On May 20, five Mississippi shipyard workers from India began a high-profile hunger strike in Washington D.C. in protest of their working conditions. Groups like CSWA, the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops and the Southern Poverty Law Center are increasingly working together to oppose abuse of immigrant workers and workers in the service industry.

Still, state worker and immigrant rights advocates say the alleged conditions at Chang's Garden are distressingly common.

"It's unusual, but it's not unique that a restaurant or a small business thinks it can take advantage of its workers and try to cut corners in various ways," Wishnie said.

The cash-based nature of the service industry and the sheer number of restaurants make it difficult to regulate. Also, advocates say the high turnover rate of service jobs creates a sense of isolation for employees.

"It's an industry where workers tend to switch jobs frequently. It's hard for workers to organize," said Laura Huiza, coordinator for New Haven-based advocacy group Junta for Progressive Action.

Chang's Garden's owners have not yet responded to the suit, but the plantiffs' representatives are vocal. "There's nothing complicated here," Wishnie said. "Some lawsuits test some new theory of the law or some Constitutional right. Everyone knows there's a minimum wage. Everyone knows that if you work more than 40 hours in most jobs, you get paid overtime. We're talking about very basic stuff." ¦

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