"Undocumented workers file suit against car wash"

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Fifteen undocumented Mexican workers filed suit in federal court last week alleging their supervisors at Green Valley Hand Car Wash failed to pay them adequate wages as required by state and federal law.

According to the group's lawyer, Jeffrey Fisher, the workers who filed the lawsuit, all men, frequently had been required to work almost 80 hours a week washing and buffing cars by hand. They were not paid minimum wage for all of the hours they worked, and they did not receive overtime pay, their lawyer said...

[...he said, she said...]

While federal and state law requires employers to pay all of their workers minimum wage for every hour they are at work -- regardless of their immigration status -- exposing the alleged injustice to the courts also means possibly exposing the workers' illegality to immigration officials...

A few of them had purchased Social Security cards for about $100 at the swap-meet on Bonanza Road, the workers said. They had used these forged documents to apply for work at the car wash, they said.

But if any of the workers past or present were illegal, supervisors at the car wash said they did not know that.

"They're all legal," Scully said. "They presented their two forms of ID (when they applied)..."

Uh huh. No, it's not that I don't believe you, it's just that... well, I don't believe you.

The most favorable outcome of this will be a) the plaintiffs will win several thousands each, b) the plaintiffs will collect after having been deported, c) the car wash will realize they could have saved money overall if they'd just hired U.S. citizens instead of illegal aliens.

Keep those suits a-comin'; if there are enough of them employers might wise up to the TCO of serf labor.

Immigration2003 · Tue, 07/20/2004 - 18:20 · · Importance: 1