Chinese developer pays $250,000 to labor trafficking victims

The Silvery Towers project was using unpaid immigrant workers, says the Department of Labor.

TWENTY-TWO IMMIGRANTS were forced to work without pay and were held in captivity until they were freed last August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Full Power Properties LLC – the Chinese developer for the 650-unit, high-rise Silvery Towers project in San Jose, California – has paid $250,000 to 22 employees to resolve violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) found during a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation.

WHD investigators determined that Full Power Properties LLC benefited from the work done by employees supplied by Job Torres, an unlicensed subcontractor doing business as Nobilis Construction.

Investigators found a number of the employees forced to work without pay on large Bay Area construction projects, including the Silvery Towers development. When not working, they lived in captivity in squalid conditions in a warehouse controlled by Torres.

On Aug. 29, last year, more than a dozen immigrant workers who were being held in captivity in a Hayward home were freed by federal agents. Federal prosecutors and Hayward police alleged then that Job Torres Hernandez forced the workers there and at other construction projects around the Bay Area to work without pay. He was indicted on charges of harboring illegal immigrants for commercial advantage or private financial gain.

"The U.S. Department of Labor will do everything in its power to stop employers who violate the law from gaining an unfair competitive advantage over those who play by the rules," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Susana Blanco, in San Francisco. "This case also represents a major victory in the fight against the scourge of human-trafficking."     

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