Thread: OH: Veterinarians end settlement talks in immigrant extortio

Veterinarians end settlement talks in immigrant extortion claims

Undocumented workers say Cables coerced them into giving back OT pay

By Mark Curnutte
November 8, 2010

Negotiations stemming from alleged wage theft involving three undocumented workers and the owners of two Greater Cincinnati animal hospitals ended last week when federal investigators started looking into the complaints.

An attorney for veterinarians Michael Cable and his daughter, Stephanie Cable, says an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor and related media publicity precludes any attempt to resolve the dispute.

Dan Moore, a representative of the advocacy group Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, confirmed Monday that negotiations ended.

An Enquirer report Oct. 31 detailed the workers' claims.

The three workers say they were paid $8 an hour straight time and worked several dozen hours of overtime in a two-week pay period, for which they were to be paid $12 an hour. They said the Cables made them pay back the $4 difference or else the Cables would report them to federal immigration officials.

"My clients (the Cables) are cooperating fully with the Department of Labor," said Steven Goodin, of the Cincinnati law firm Graydon Head. "We will provide whatever they want."

The Cables did not respond to six earlier Enquirer efforts to obtain comment, beginning with a visit to their Pleasant Run facility and a phone call Oct. 28.

That same day, Interfaith Workers filed a complaint with labor officials on behalf of the workers, who say they were forced to pay back more than $24,000 in earned overtime to Stephanie Cable under the threat that if they didn't they would be deported.

The three workers, though all are illegal immigrants from Mexico, are protected as fully as citizens by U.S. labor laws.

Labor officials are investigating the Hamilton Avenue Animal Hospital and Clinic in Pleasant Run and the Sycamore Animal Hospital in Symmes Township.

"We have been in close contact with the Department of Labor locally and in Washington, D.C.," Moore said. "We are happy with the expediency and amount of attention they are giving this complaint and are confident there will be swift restitution for the workers."

Interfaith advocates, the workers and a handful of supporters paid a surprise visit to the Cables on Oct. 10 and demanded payment for the workers.

"They were ambushed," Goodin said.

Goodin claims that since the first Enquirer report on the allegations the Cables have been unfairly tried in what he calls the court of public opinion. The Cables also are not happy with protests held at their businesses, most recently on Halloween afternoon.

Goodin said the Symmes Township location received a bomb threat that was reported to the county sheriff. "This has been a living hell for them since the allegations were put forth publicly," he said.

Officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and the Internal Revenue Service say the animal hospital might have broken hiring and income tax laws, although representatives of both agencies would not confirm or deny that they are investigating.

Federal law prohibits hiring workers without complying with employment eligibility requirements. Employers are required to examine identification documents.

"They (the Cables) were presented with what appeared to be valid documents," Goodin told the Enquirer. "My clients deny threatening to deport anyone. They were under the impression they made legal hires."

Employers who hire undocumented workers are coming under increased ICE attention, agency spokesman Khaalid Walls said from Detroit. ICE is the federal agency responsible for deporting immigrants in the United States illegally. "We do definitely go after employers who are knowingly and egregiously ignoring immigration laws with their workers," Walls said.

The relatively small size of a company or the number of illegal employees involved would not stop ICE from investigating. "We've gone after huge corporations and small (agricultural) companies," Walls said.

One worker produced a series of personal checks made out to Stephanie Cable that were deposited into the company's account at Huntington Bank. The amounts corresponded with the $4-an-hour difference. That worker, Jose Aguilar, worked 61 hours of overtime in the two-week period ending with a pay date of Sept. 17, 2009. He wrote a personal check to Stephanie Cable in the amount of $244.

Later, he said, the Cables required cash payments.

Aguilar lived in an apartment above the Sycamore Animal Hospital on Montgomery Road. Along with another worker, Salvador Martinez, the men secretly videotaped themselves paying Stephanie Cable in cash.

"There could be a potential violation of income tax law, including employment tax fraud," said Craig Casserly, an IRS spokesman in Columbus.

The Cables' attorney said they filed a complaint with the Hamilton County Sheriff about the legality of the videotape.

"We're concerned how this so-called evidence was obtained," Goodin said. "We think it was illegal surveillance of a private office that often is used by the veterinarians to change clothes after surgery."

Neither the IRS nor Labor Department inquires about workers' immigration status.

Undocumented workers can get an IRS number and pay taxes.

Through mid-November 2009, Aguilar had paid almost $2,900 in Ohio and federal taxes, including Social Security and Medicare. Workers on U.S. soil are equally protected by federal labor laws, regardless of their immigration status.

The Cables were in federal court in November 2007 on previous employee allegations of labor law violations.

Without admitting guilt, Hamilton Avenue Animal Hospital and Clinic Inc. agreed three years ago with the U.S. Department of Labor to pay $9,225.01 in overtime with interest to 19 former female employees. The Cables were not fined but were ordered not to violate the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 provision that requires employers to pay at least time-and-a-half for overtime work.

"We showed (the Cables) canceled checks and other evidence the workers have," Moore said, "and they said these were private loans. They haven't produced a single document that they loaned anyone any money. We're thrilled the Department of Labor is investigating and know the workers will receive justice."

http://news.cincinnati.com

Let me tell you, the Cables should be fined for hiring illegal aliens, but our labor laws should not under any circumstance protect an illegal alien. Those laws need to be changed. You can see that these employees are not helpless victims being taken advantage of. They're scam artists. Illegal employment requires two to tango, someone willing to hire illegal aliens and the illegal alien who scams for the job and then plays our system better than most Americans.

There's been this erroneous attitude that the illegal aliens are just helpless poor people breaking laws to find a better life and all their transgressions and violations of law should be ignored and the hammer brought down on employers. On the surface that might seem right, but in reality that is wrong. Illegal aliens are violators of law first, they deceive employers to a point with their stories and false documents.

Our labor laws should never favor an illegal employee over the employer. Both should be held equally accountable. The employers need to be fined and the illegal employees need to be deported.

And wasting time and money on processing or investigating wages and compensation claims of illegal aliens is the stupidest most irresponsible thing I've ever heard of. It's like having an agency that protects the cohorts of a bank robbery who want to split the spoils and 1 of them cheats the others and here comes the government making the 1 thief pay the other thieves.

If you're here illegally, you are entitled to nothing for what you do here. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero.

"The three workers, though all are illegal immigrants from Mexico, are protected as fully as citizens by U.S. labor laws. "

This statement is a flat out lie. For U.S. workers the labor laws are merely ink on paper. The illegals are treated better than citizens. They probably even have free legal counsel.

I agree with Judy. They are illegal. They don't get a day in court. Give the jobs to citizens and either incarcerate the illegals or make sure they stay in their nation of origin. They should be forced to repay every dime they made while here and pay for all public services used while here and they can stay in a labor camp until they have reimbursed the US people.

We are not one big happy family. Displaced jobless citizens are not feeling it you idiot oligarchs and social engineers. We reject you and your stupid ideas and all the crap that you have been putting us through for decades.