Grand China Buffet came under scrutiny in August of 2010 when the restaurants’ workers were joined by MassCOSH, the Chinese Progressive Association and the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores (the Workers Community Center) to deliver an "unfair labor practice" complaint to the owners of the restaurant. The worker centers are all members of the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative, which supports workers across communities and ethnicities to demand safe, just working conditions.

In the letter, the employees of Grand China Buffet demanded that management re-hire workers who they said were fired after they refused to operate a malfunctioning oven, which later exploded. The workers also cited their 70 hour, six day work week, low pay – between $4.51 and $6.83 per hour – and denial of meal breaks as illegal labor practices.

Over 30 workers and supporters held signs and spoke to customers inside and outside the business regarding the restaurant’s working conditions and their unjust treatment, persuading some visitors to take their business elsewhere.

“I had worked at Grand Chinese Buffet since for months with no pay,” stated Fidela Martinaz, who was sixteen years old and pregnant while working for the restaurant. “They gave me a small room to live in with my boyfriend but would not pay me. They made me work excessive hours with no breaks.”

Tonia Greene, a teen peer leader at MassCOSH’s young worker safety program, Teens Lead @ Work, found Martinez’s case particularly disturbing.

"Fiedela Martinez’s story of her experience at the Grand China Buffet is just another example of why the Child Labor Laws exist and why we need to do a better job of making sure all teens under 18 know their rights in the workplace," said Greene.

Exchanging room and board for pay was not limited to just Martinez. According to the Attorney Generals Fair Labor Division, up to four employees shared one bedroom with approximately 13 workers in the house owned by You and Lu. Workers were also not given keys to access their home and their living conditions were defined by the Fair Labor Division as ‘unsuitable.’

Tom Smith, an attorney with the non profit Justice At Work, represented the workers, with assistance from Greater Boston Legal Services Attorney Audrey Richardson. “These were courageous workers who spoke out against abusive conditions that thousands of kitchen workers are suffering in silence,” said Smith. “Hopefully this decision by the Attorney General will provide the workers with a sense of justice along with their hard-earned wages and send a message to restaurant owners that there are serious consequences to violating the laws of the Commonwealth.”

“We feel extremely happy that finally, after a year, we are seeing justice… Grand China Buffet owners will be now responsible for all of the suffering we went through when working for them,” said former Grand China employee Felipe Merino. “We feel that it is our responsibility to educate other workers about their health and safety as well as their wage and hour rights. What we went through is absolutely inhumane and all workers must be treated with dignity and respect.”