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Car wash can't ask status of workers
Judge: Immigration queries intimidating
By Barbara Rose
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 11, 2006


A federal judge in Chicago has found that a suburban car wash tried to intimidate its mostly Hispanic employees by requiring verification of their immigration status after three workers complained about alleged sexual harassment.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman issued a protective order May 5 barring Glenview Car Wash from seeking further information about employees' immigration status until a pending harassment suit concludes.

The class-action suit, filed on behalf of the car wash's male employees in September by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, is based on charges filed with that agency by Federico Antimo, Elmer Bethancourt and Diego Perez.

The suit alleges the trio "had been subjected to, among other things, unwelcome touching and offers of sex from the car wash manager, Anthony Fillichio."

An attorney for the car wash, Peter Andjelkovich, said there is no evidence to support the harassment allegations. He said he is reviewing Guzman's order and considering an appeal.

The car wash simply was trying to comply with federal law by asking employees to fill out forms verifying that they are authorized to work, he said. The forms, which are supposed to be filled out before employees start work, require workers to certify under penalty of perjury that they are citizens, permanent residents or authorized to work.

Andjelkovich said the family-owned business discovered its personnel files were incomplete while providing documents to the EEOC.

"There was no evidence of anyone being intimidated," he added.

But Guzman noted in his protective order that the car wash never required employees to fill out such forms before.

"It is not plausible that this employer, in business since 1989, would now discover for the first time that its employees' files were deficient in regards to immigration law requirements," the order states. "Rather, the court finds that the main purpose behind this alleged newfound desire to abide by the law is to effect a not-so-subtle intimidation" of the workers who filed charges and "all the potential class members."

A common motivation for hiring undocumented workers, Guzman wrote, "is the reality that such workers are unlikely to complain if discriminated against, underpaid, overworked or subjected to abusive work environments because they fear deportation."

Safeguarding their rights against discrimination will strengthen immigration laws, his order states. "If employers are forced to treat such workers in the same manner as they must treat documented workers ... a main incentive to hire the undocumented worker simply disappears."

David Whitlock, an Atlanta-based attorney who specializes in immigration, called the order "highly unusual."

"It's a little odd to hear a judge ordering someone not to comply with immigration law, but I understand why the judge might conclude this is intended to intimidate the class," he said.