A protracted lawsuit involving discrimination and illegal labor practices at Assi Super, Inc., one of Koreatown’s largest businesses, came to a close in December as the supermarket’s owner paid a total of $1.475 million in damages to 171 former workers.
Marking the end to a six-year-long labor dispute with their former employer, Assi owner Daniel Sung Chul Rhee, ousted grocery workers expressed relief and elation Dec. 15 upon receiving settlement payments in the class action lawsuit.
“Today I learned that justice is alive,” beamed Tai Ok Ryou, speaking in Korean while seated beside her husband at a modest celebration for the former Assi workers at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center.
“I think my wife’s first reaction is probably the best way to describe what I’m thinking,” said the Rev. William Ryou, 67, a former Assi meat department assistant. “Things are back in their rightful place.”
A butcher at Assi for two-and-a-half years, the Rev. Ryou was among the first recipients of the settlement awards won by ex-Assi employees whose claims for compensation were approved Nov. 27 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl. The settlement also stipulated that Assi managers undergo training to prevent employment discrimination and that the market implement an internal complaint system, rest periods and overtime pay for current workers.
Throughout the Assi imbroglio, owner Daniel Rhee has maintained that the store management was not responsible for any wrongdoing, and, when contacted through both the store management and attorney Robert Vogel, Rhee declined to comment.
Among the dozen workers on hand at the Dec. 15 gathering, only the Rev. Ryou had received payment in the case. In the ensuing days, however, news of dozens of workers who received disbursement checks came from various quarters, said Danny Park, executive director of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), who assisted in the filing of the lawsuit.
The remaining payments were expected to arrive at their destinations within one week, Park said.
Settlement amounts for each employee vary depending on which of two legal classes a worker is categorized: a discrimination class and an overtime wage class, said Bert Voorhees, class counsel representing workers, who was on hand at the celebration.
Payments to 106 Latino workers in the discrimination class ranged from $2,214.57 to $22,996.09, after tax, with an average award of $6,661.85, according to Voorhees. In the wage class, 65 awards ranging from $128.56 to $23,487.17, after tax, were made, with an average award of $5,113.51. Members of the wage class were predominately Korean, with eight members of the suit belonging to both categories, Voorhees said.
In determining settlement awards, the number of hours an employee worked in total and the severity of damages suffered were taken into account by a Special Master charged with evaluating the distribution of funds in the legal proceeding, Voorhees said.
