The complaint was filed by Marissa U. Acunin, Virginia Q. Alipio, Remedios Amor, Nenita A. Espinosa, Erlinda Reginio also known as Erlinda Carading, and Norma Quijano with the assistance of their lawyer, Stephen C. Woodruff.
The defendants are Sam Kwang Saipan Corp., its manager Park Jong Suk, production manager Wu Cheng Zi, and supervisor Xian Yu Xin Yu.
The six plaintiffs are filing a complaint for discrimination on their origin of nationality, age, disability and other basis.
They are asking for awards for loss of earnings and employment benefits, punitive damages, past and pecuniary losses, mental anguish, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life.
They are seeking award expectation, incidental and consequential damages, attorney’s fees and costs of suit, and other relief as the court may deem proper.
The plaintiffs said they filed their complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in late 2006.
On May 8, 2008, the EEOC told the plaintiffs that they can file a lawsuit.
The plaintiffs said their contracts were terminated in Dec. 2006, Feb. 2007 and Dec. 2007.
During the course of their employment, the plaintiffs said they suffered humiliation at the hands of the defendants.
They said they were singled out and labeled “slow and old just because they are Filipinos.”
They added that they “suffered working in a hostile environment and bore the insults thrown their way.”
They said there was available overtime work but this was given to the Chinese workers only.
According to the plaintiffs, upon the expiration of their work permits, the defendants hired Chinese workers to replace them.
