Advocates warn of worker exploitation in LA fire rebuilding effort

In the drive to quickly rebuild areas devastated by the recent L.A. fires, the most vulnerable workers could be exploited by unscrupulous employers.

That’s the warning of a coalition of anti-trafficking and legal aid groups, whose leaders point to research linking a rise in worker abuse to natural disasters, most notably in the construction industry.

Coalition member Chancee Martorell has been working on human trafficking issues for three decades as executive director of the Thai Community Development Center.

“The construction industry is going to need a massive number of workers in this rebuilding,” Martorell said. “This is a plea for people to really be aware and to ensure that we don't rebuild in such haste that we neglect to think about the potential of workers being recruited and trafficked.”

Inhumane working conditions

The largest group of workers most at risk for exploitation are immigrants who are desperate for work but lack English proficiency to know their rights, Martorell said.

Labor violations could range from wage theft to fraud and coercion associated with labor trafficking – when workers are lured to jobs with false promises and find themselves trapped in inhumane conditions.

Some workers have their passports taken from them, while others who lack legal status are threatened with deportation, tying them to their abusive employer, Martorell said.

Workers may be provided housing and food but are told they now owe the employer money.

“You're being forced to work without pay, or a debt is exacted on you, and now you're having to work off that debt,” Martorell said.

One of the country’s largest labor trafficking cases involved hundreds of workers recruited from India and the UAE to repair oil rigs damaged by Hurricane Katrina nearly 20 years ago.

A jury awarded them millions of dollars after workers said they had been forced to work round-the-clock shifts and to live in labor camps.

Not just the construction industry

Anti-trafficking experts in the coalition say construction workers are not the only ones at risk of exploitation after natural disasters.

Disaster survivors often find themselves in financial straits that make them more susceptible to traffickers, said Stephanie Richard who directs the Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School.

“People have lost their homes, their transportation, their access to medical care, their employment,” Richard said. “Sometimes promises of help which sound too good to be true can be.”

Others in danger of exploitation: the domestic workers and day laborers who lost their livelihoods in the L.A.-area fires.

What local government can do

Coalition members have been calling on L.A. and county officials to prepare for a rise in labor abuses as rebuilding efforts gain momentum.

They want government officials to spotlight labor trafficking so the public understands that it’s connected to natural disasters. The hope is that greater visibility about the issue will help trafficking victims recognize what’s happening to them.

They are also calling on the city and county to update its procurement procedures so they only hire businesses that have policies in place to prevent trafficking. Another coalition proposal is that government workers in disaster areas be trained to recognize labor trafficking.

Coalition members say they have been working with the office of Supervisor Holly Mitchell to produce a motion that incorporates their recommendations.

One woman said that better-trained government workers would have helped her exit a situation where she had been trafficked into domestic servitude as a nanny after the Tubbs Fire in northern California in 2017.

“It’s about ensuring that local public assistance and health and human services workers are trained and equipped with identifying (labor trafficking) when they're doing client interviews," said Miranda, who asked to only be identified by her first name. "Because that's a barrier in my experience,”