San Diego Employee Right Center

More info about the ERC



 San Diego's Employee Rights Center (ERC)

Do You Know Your Rights As an Employee?


Even if you don’t have a union, you have labor rights!
Even if you don’t have documents, you have labor rights!


UNEMPLOYMENT/DISABILITY INSURANCE
TENANT’S HABITABILITY LAWS
UNPAID WAGE CLAIMS
IMMIGRATION STATUS
UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES
UNSAFE WORKING CONDITIONS
WORKERS COMPENSATION INSURANCE


Regular office hours are 9:00 to 5:00 PM on Monday through Friday.
Other hours are by appointment only.
Phone the Center’s 24-hour message line at (619) 521-1372
Office: 4265 Fairmount Avenue, Suite 210, San Diego, CA
Located in City Heights near the I-15 freeway
More information: ERC Website

The San Diego's Employee Rights Center (ERC) was created in 1999 to support nonunion workers with a host of issues, including unemployment claims, wage disputes, immigrants’ labor rights and demands against unscrupulous companies and employers.

The Center, with its law school student volunteers, can educate, assist and advocate for you. Education about your rights is provided for free. Representation services are available for low fees that you can afford. The Center’s activities are sponsored by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Labor’s Alliance (501c3), local unions, grants, tax-deductible contributions and various private foundations.

JUSTICE FOR THE JOB – SERVICE IN THE COMMUNITY

For 10 years the Employee Rights Center in City Heights has been providing education and advocacy to all workers regarding their workplace rights and benefits. Its offices are centrally located by the corner of Fairmount Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard and are open Monday through Friday 9 AM to 5 PM, allowing City Heights residents and all others to walk in at their convenience or call the Center’s 24-hour message service.

As the only non-profit program in San Diego that is focused on workplace rights, the Center has helped thousands of low-income employees recover their unpaid wages, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, and other workplace benefits. These benefits are crucial in improving employees’ ability to pay their rent, get access to health care when injured, to maintain their family’s welfare, and to be self-sufficient. The Center uses over 20 local law student volunteers supervised by an attorney to deliver these services and further educate all employees about their workplace rights/benefits. The Center recruits a diverse cadre of law students of Latino, African, Asian, and Middle Eastern descent in order to have culturally competent services to immigrant communities.

Since 2004 the Center has also been helping immigrant workers get legal status, improvetheir immigrant status and become U.S. citizens, all fundamental needs in City Heights. There are no other non-profit immigration services in City Heights serving its large, diverse immigrant populations who need convenient, low-cost service and education. By being here the Center is accountable to the community it serves. The Center not only provides all these services at its Fairmount Avenue offices, it also provides education on workplace rights and immigration status at various community workshops currently being organized with community partners in the area.

No union? No problem

No union? No problem

Peter Zschiesche founded and runs a center that helps workers

By Craig D. Rose, SD Union Tribune, December 19, 2006

Many entrepreneurs fail to make a lot of money. Peter Zschiesche is among the small group who never made money a goal.

The director of San Diego's Employee Rights Center could perhaps be characterized as a nonprofit entrepreneur. The center he created in 1999 has turned into a catchall agency helping nonunion workers with a host of issues, including unemployment claims, wage disputes and proceedings at the National Labor Relations Board.

It's much like a labor union office – for workers without a union.

Hundreds of workers each year come through the door of the center's modest offices at Fairmount and El Cajon in San Diego. Many more raise inquiries over the phone.

Salud y Seguridad de los Trabajadores

Sus Derechos y Responsabilidades

Según las leyes estatales y federales, los trabajadores tienen derecho a un lugar de trabajo seguro y saludable .

En California, Cal/OSHA establece y hace cumplir las leyes que explican lo que los empleadores deben hacer para mantener la seguridad en el lugar de trabajo. Estos, se dividen en tres categorías:

El derecho a saber sobre los peligros del lugar de trabajo, este se cumple cuando se nos informa con que productos estamos trabajando, cuales son sus efectos, como manejarlos debidamente, etc. Tambien tenemos derecho a saber cuales leyes nos protegen y como nos protegen.

El derecho a Proteccion contra la exposición a los peligros , el empleador es responsable de proveer un lugar de trabajo libre de peligros, y si esto no es posible, de proveer equipo de protección personal como ropa, guantes, gafas, zapatos, respiradores, etc.

El derecho a actuar , para poder participar responsablemente en los esfuerzos por crear un lugar de trabajo seguro debemos saber nuestros derechos, conocer agencias que pueden ayudarnos y sentirnos libres de pedirles ayuda. Tambien debemos poder ejercer este derecho participando en actividades con nuestros compañeros de trabajo y los sindicatos que nos representan.

AYUDA Y APOYO

Cal/OSHA- Administracion de Seguridad
y Salud Ocupacional de California
San Diego
7575 Metropolitan Drive,
Ste. 204
San Diego, CA 92108
(619) 767-2060

UCLA-LOSH- Programa de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional de la Universidad de California en Los Angeles.
310)794-5964
www.ucla.losh.edu

ERC Employee Rights Center
4265 Fairmount Avenue, Ste. 210
San Diego, Ca, 92105
619) 521-1372

www.citylabor.blogspot.com

Worker Health and Safety
Rights and Responsibilities

UCLA-LOSH
http://www.losh.ucla.edu/

Workers have the right to a safe workplace under both state and federal laws. In California,Cal/OSHA sets and enforces standards that spell out in detail what employers must do to keep the workplace safe. The health and safety rights workers have can be put into three categories:

The Right to Know

This is the right to get specific information from your employer about the hazards found in your workplace. Workers must be informed about the products with which they are working, their effects on workers’ health, how to handle them properly, etc. Workers also have a right to know the laws that protect them. Several Cal/OSHA standards give you this right.

The Right to Protection

In California every employer is required to provide a safe and healthful workplace for employees. Your employer must try to reduce or eliminate hazards by all possible means. If a hazard can’t be eliminated completely, then your employer must protect you from it by supplying special equipment like respirators, protective clothing, goggles, gloves, safety shoes, or fall protection devices.

Cal/OSHA has many standards that regulate specific hazards. These tell employers what steps they must take to minimize those hazards for workers. Examples include the Lead in Construction standard and the Bloodborne Pathogens standard. (See Factsheet O, Cal/OSHA Standards.)

The Right to Act

This is your right to speak up and take action to improve health and safety conditions at work. It includes the right to make a complaint to Cal/OSHA or other agencies, the right to discuss health and safety problems with your supervisor or manager without fear of discrimination, the right to refuse unsafe work, and the right to get health and safety information from the employer.

These rights are enforced by Cal/OSHA, the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (Labor Commissioner), or the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)


citylabor.blogspot.com