In the News

LOS ANGELES — ”I don’t care if there is no customer or if the customer is a fly or a mosquito, you are not allowed to take a break to eat.”

This was one of the incidents with one of the defendants related by Gina Pablo-Grossman, one of the 11 plaintiffs in the successful lawsuit against the owners of L’Amande bakeries, as she and others met June 9 with the community and media here to celebrate their landmark legal victory.

MANILA, Philippines – A California District Court recently granted 11 trafficked overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) a default judgement of $15.2 million (P700 million) in damages and fees.

The workers were trafficked to the United States to serve as domestic servants and kitchen staff to high-end bakeries owned by defendants Analiza and Goncalo Moitinho de Almeida. They were subjected to abusive conditions, including 17-hour workdays and $3 (P138.23) per-hour wages.

The 11 Filipino workers in Los Angeles, who last month won a $15.3 million federal court judgment for the human trafficking and labor violations of their former employer, have obtained visas to stay in the United States with the help of a member of Congress.

The Filipino workers say they were recruited by the bakery owners with a promise: Join us as we launch a new business in the United States, and we'll double — or even quadruple — your pay. But when the first workers arrived in Southern California in 2012 under a little-known visa program for foreign...

The Filipino workers say they were recruited by the bakery owners with a promise: Join us as we launch a new business in the United States, and we'll double — or even quadruple — your pay.