Thread: Class of Undocumented Workers Sues Wal-Mart

Monday, October 18, 2010
Last Update: 10:10 AM PT

Class of Undocumented Workers Sues Wal-Mart
By CHRIS FRY

NEWARK (CN) - In a federal class action, 42 named plaintiffs say Wal-Mart hired them knowing they were undocumented, stiffed them for overtime and for regular wages, paid them in cash or by personal checks from labor contractors, put them to forced labor through coercion, "violated immigration, money laundering and protective wage and hour laws," and routinely locked them inside stores while they worked night shifts.

Wal-Mart and some of its contractors settled federal complaints and paid millions in fines. The named plaintiffs, suing for the class, seek the wages of which they were cheated, and other damages.

Most of the named plaintiffs have names that indicate Eastern European descent, particularly Polish and Czech. Many say they worked more than 40 hours a week, seven days a week, and never were paid overtime.

Lead plaintiff Victor Manuel Zavala, one of two named plaintiffs with Latino surnames, claims that "beginning in no later than March 1997, senior Wal-Mart management, realizing that Wal-Mart could substantially reduce costs and substantially increase profits were it to rely on the labor of undocumented migrants to clean its thousands of stores, created a criminal enterprise that involved conspiracies to violate, as well as substantive violations, of federal immigration laws and other laws."

The class claims Wal-Mart engaged in a criminal RICO conspiracy involving "the employment, encouragement, harboring and transporting of undocumented workers," which the company hired through outside contractors.

Wal-Mart did it to duck taxes, including Social Security, and government regulations and to avoid having to pay for health benefits, according to the complaint.

The class claims Wal-Mart "sheltered the undocumented migrants by arranging or providing lodging for them and routinely transporting them across the United States to work at different Wal-Mart locations." The plaintiffs say that the company structures its business operations "in multiple shell corporations so as to shield the continued employment of the migrants from detection" and that "senior Wal-Mart executives ... knew of the scheme" and "permitted it to flourish."

The complaint adds: "The Wal-Mart Enterprise was directed by Divisional Vice Presidents within the Wal-Mart Stores Division with responsibility for in-store cleaning and procurement of services."

The class claims that Wal-Mart typically paid their wages to outside contractors, who then paid the migrant workers in cash or sometimes by personal check.

They also claim Wal-Mart locked them in stores overnight, "intentionally" and "against their will." Class members who complained about the treatment were "threatened with deportation or other adverse legal action."

Wal-Mart paid an $11 million fine in 2005 "in order to avoid criminal penalties" after being accused of many illegal immigrants to "provide floor cleaning services" from 1998 to 2003, according to the complaint.

"This action is directed at compensating the named plaintiffs and the class they represent for the harm caused them by this criminal enterprise."

They seek back wages and treble and punitive damages for RICO violations, conspiracy, violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and false imprisonment. They are represented by James Linsey with Cohen, Weiss and Simon of New York, N.Y.

http://oneoldvet.com/

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/10/18/31133.htm

Companies should have seen this coming when they opened themselves up by knowingly hiring illegals and paying them in cash.
I think that this is just the beginning. As jobs and money dry up, the lawyers will find a new pot to sue for and this one could be large and untapped.
Serves them right.

my wife worked for wally, in my area of illinois no illegals get hired. they shop, but dont even apply. e-varify.

Illegal invaders coming back to bite the greedy hands of the employers who hired them, (in the process bypassing American citizens), knowing full well these invaders were illegal!

That cheap labor isn't so cheap now is it! When will these morons learn that hiring illegal invaders is ALWAYS a losing proposition! I suppose when you’re as rich and powerful as Wal-Mart, this situation is simply the cost of doing business.

If these allegations are true, someone at Wal-Mart needs to be criminally indicted! Someone needs to go to jail over this crap, and not get off with simply paying a class action settlement!

YeAh ! Go illegals go !

I will always support illegal immigrants when they sue ! I hope they all get super rich ! Serves walmart right !

Those illegals I'm quite sure were aware of the things that they are making accusations about when they applied. For one, a lot of Mexican illegals demand to be paid in cash because they don't have a bank account and don't intend to have one. They know that they are getting paid under the table too because most often, that's the only way they can be hired because they are illegal and they don't think too much about lost overtime and things of that nature because without it, they are still making a ton more money than they did in Mexico.
I'm pretty sure that immigration lawyers and Hispanic rights groups and the like are the ones who instigate and seek to find clients for these lawsuits and it's about them having clients who have the potential to bring in big dollars by reaching settlements with major corporations. As a matter of fact, I would dare to make the accusation that a lot of illegals get instructions from others that tell them exactly step by step how to manipulate their way into setting themselves up into the position to be able to sue for something.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if groups like La Raza even held classes to teach illegals how to manipulate their way through everything USA.And on the other side of the coin, the La Raza group then can use those individuals as examples for their propaganda that illegals are abused, underpaid, blah blah blah.

Case dismissed... I'm sure they put on their employment applications they were illegal aliens and not eligible to work. I'm also sure they got paid.

Dixie

My husband worked for some 15 years at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico as a civilian under a subcontractor. When he was hired, the job was classified as "part time" and because of that, he was not eligible for benefits such as health care. Part time my butt. He worked every day 8 hours or more a day for those 15 years. is he a victim of labor abuse? Perhaps but it's perfectly legal to hire someone under that part time misnomer even though it's really a full time job. Legal Americans are just as much victims of unfair labor practices the difference is, there isn't all those equal rights groups standing behind them promoting their so called abuse.

I see something good in this situation!!

Every time these illegals sue an employer, It should make other employers realize they could be next and ..........sometimes "doing the right thing" (hiring Americans!!!) cost far less that "doing the dishonest thing" (hiring illegals)

I have said this many times before...........illegals would not be working and taking American's jobs if greedy employers did not hire them!!!

When enough of these greedy employers gets sued by illegals, maybe they will begain to realize..........nothing is free!!!

I just went to a Wall Mart today and half the workers speak spanish. The same thing with 99 cents etc. Of course some of them are in the country legally. But are they all in the country legally?