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Workers' Rights

Team

Ammad Rafiqi

Ammad Rafiqi

Staff Attorney, Workers' Rights

Ammad Rafiqi

Staff Attorney, Workers' Rights

Prior to joining ALC’s Workers’ Rights team, Ammad worked as a civil rights advocate serving members of Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities on a broad range of issues, including employment discrimination/unemployment insurance benefits, religious accommodation issues, law enforcement harassment and anti-Muslim bullying in schools. Through previous roles, Ammad also has experience from his time in New York (and Canada) on immigration matters, including refugee, asylum, and DACA issues. A native of Kashmir, Ammad works with Americans for Kashmir to engage political stakeholders in finding a permanent internationally mediated solution to the Indian-occupation of Kashmir. In his spare time, Ammad plays in cricket/soccer leagues and often finds that most of his planned hikes are far beyond his lung capacity.

Mei Mei Chan

Mei Mei Chan

Community Advocate, Workers' Rights

Mei Mei Chan

Community Advocate, Workers' Rights

Mei Mei is a Community Advocate with the Workers’ Rights Program where she supports the legal counseling clinic and works on “Know Your Rights” trainings and materials.

She grew up in Bakersfield as the child of low-wage workers--an assistant cook and a hotel housekeeper. Her experience living in a working class, first generation immigrant household is one of Mei Mei's reasons for her commitment to social justice. In her free time, she maintains her morning pages streak and studies peoples' movements against U.S. imperialism.

Palyn Hung

Palyn Hung

Staff Attorney, Workers' Rights

Palyn Hung

Staff Attorney, Workers' Rights

Palyn’s legal career spans two legal services programs, the National Employment Law Project, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. She has advocated for disabled clients in administrative hearings and abused clients in protective order, custody, and divorce proceedings. At NELP, she was co-counsel on a class action that recovered back wages and overtime for grocery store and pharmacy delivery workers. Following the 2004 Republican National Convention, as a staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, Palyn represented peaceful protestors caught up in mass arrests, ultimately leading to a large group settlement. Most recently, she was a volunteer at the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, helping achieve a trial victory in a national origin discrimination case challenging a hiring question on prior use of other Social Security Numbers. After graduating from Harvard College and Columbia Law School, she clerked for a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn.

Tatiana Cheong

Tatiana Cheong

Legal Assistant, Housing Rights

Tatiana Cheong

Legal Assistant, Housing Rights

Tatiana is a Legal Assistant with the Housing Rights Program where she supports legal & administrative work. Prior to ALC, she worked for a law office in Oakland Chinatown, supporting a small legal team and providing Cantonese interpretation to the community.

Since the age of 11, she was involved and supported by local nonprofits, such as Girls Inc and the Achieve Program. Tatiana roots her work in giving back to the people as a way of saying thank you to the community that raised her.

Winifred Kao

Winifred Kao

Senior Counsel, Impact Litigation & Senior Staff Attorney, Workers' Rights

Winifred Kao

Senior Counsel, Impact Litigation & Senior Staff Attorney, Workers' Rights

Winifred Kao is Senior Counsel for Impact Litigation at ALC. She also leads ALC’s Workers’ Rights Program. She served as ALC’s Litigation Director from 2011 – 2020 during which time she helped provide direction and support on ALC’s impact litigation across program areas. Prior to coming to ALC, Winnie worked at a union-side labor and employment law firm where she primarily represented hotel, restaurant and food and commercial workers and unions in a wide variety of labor, employment, constitutional, and class-action cases. Winnie was previously a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division where she litigated housing and public accommodation discrimination cases. She also served on detail as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, and was an extern for the Honorable Gladys Kessler in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. Winnie has worked as a community organizer for labor and civil rights groups. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Michigan Law School where she was a member of the Michigan Law Review.

She has won commendations and awards for her work from numerous organizations including the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the University of Michigan Law School.

Our Focus

Fair pay, full benefits, and freedom from retaliation and discrimination in the workplace are key to economic security. We have a long history of helping low-wage immigrant workers get justice on a wide range of workplace issues, from race and national origin discrimination to retaliation and workplace safety. In partnership with worker centers and community organizations, we are supporting workers across the Bay Area to assert their rights, win back wages, and organize for better workplaces.

  • We represent workers and worker centers organizing for just pay, fair treatment, and safe working conditions through impact litigation, direct services, legislative advocacy, and our counseling clinic.
  • We advocate for government agencies to provide resources for workers, no matter what language they speak or read.
  • We produce know-your-rights and in-language materials to help workers advocate for themselves and hold employers to account.
A group of people stand in front of a banner reading ""Yank Sing Workers Untied to Defend our Rights" in English and Chinese

Yank Sing workers gather after an organizing meeting with the Asian Law Caucus and Chinese Progressive Association.

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Contact us for help with legal questions about your workplace and employment rights. Learn more about your rights at work.

Our Work

Guides & Reports

Community Know Your Rights Resources: Workers' Rights

We provide free consults for low-wage workers on issues including unpaid wages, unemployment insurance benefits, wrongful termination, discrimination/harassment, health and safety, and more.

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Guides & Reports

Fired by An App: The Toll of Secret Algorithms and Unchecked Discrimination on California Rideshare Drivers

ALC and Rideshare Drivers United (RDU) surveyed 810 current and former Uber and Lyft drivers in California to better understand their experiences as workers in a transportation industry in flux.

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Perspective

ALC @ 50: ‘Transforming How We Look At Who Is An Employer’

In a conversation about ALC's history and work today, one theme resonated across decades: workers’ campaigns to hold accountable those with the most power to decide wages and working conditions.

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