Former workers' lawsuit accuses landscaping companies of slavery:

4:08 AM, Mar. 25, 2011

Written by Brian Haas

Fifteen employees of two Tennessee landscaping companies have sued their former employers, accusing them of human trafficking, slavery and other violations.

Nashville attorney Charles Yezbak filed the suit Thursday on behalf of Mexican nationals working for Vanderbilt Landscaping and Onesource Landscape & Golf Services in 2009 and 2010. The workers were all brought in on worker visas to labor at two companies run by Larry Vanderbilt Sr. and Joffrey Vanderbilt.

The business is not affiliated with Vanderbilt University.

The complaint arose in August 2010, when Hilario Jimenez said he escaped from a trailer in Mason, Tenn., at a labor camp run by Vanderbilt Landscaping. He said he was underpaid, held hostage by the withholding of his passport and was under constant surveillance while living in squalid housing.

Thursday's lawsuit adds a host of new allegations. Additional workers accused the company of displaying firearms in threatening manners, threatening to deport workers who complained about poor working conditions and failing to pay them according to their work contracts.

The Vanderbilts have not responded to the suit. They have previously denied treating the employees improperly, and two employees have said that they were treated well while working for them.

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