Posted on 02/27/2007 6:29:21 PM PST by FLOutdoorsman
A federal lawsuit filed in Greenbelt alleges that a Maryland company that paints luxury condominiums in the District defrauded Latino immigrant workers who routinely worked 60 hours or more a week by failing to pay them overtime.
The company, SCCP Painting Contractors Inc., also allegedly did not pay the four plaintiffs named in the suit for their final two weeks of work. One of the workers, Ivan Aplicano, 34, of Gaithersburg said in an interview yesterday that he worked 113 hours during his last two weeks with the company. Its refusal to pay him after he was fired in April meant he was unable to send money to his native Honduras to help pay for the burial of his mother, Aplicano said.
The company's owner, John Sulmonte, said yesterday that he was unaware of the lawsuit or of the allegations that people who worked for him were not paid for their labor.
"I don't know anything about it," Sulmonte said, adding that the workers and their attorneys were welcome to call him. The company is headquartered in Frederick County.
The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and lawyers with the downtown firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.
They plan to ask a federal judge to certify the suit as a class-action lawsuit, said Laura E. Varela, a lawyer with the lawyers' committee.
Class-action status would allow attorneys for the plaintiffs to seek payment records from the company for every employee for the past three years, Varela said. SCCP has employed more than 500 workers during that time, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If this article was talking about workers legally here, it would be a shame to hear of them being treated this way. But if somebody is here illegally on a cash basis, they deserve what they get.
Having said that, being Maryland, the illegals will win their case. No probably about it.
Sadly
This goes on all of the time. And why Americans are not willing to do the jobs that these illegal workers are willing to do.
No one in their right mind wants to get screwed by their employers.
The employers do it because they can. Illegals work in the shadows and outside the law. Anything goes short of murder.
Fur Shur, you've always been able to count on some Americans to continue to have a burning desire to have slaves, or sacrificial victims.
I live in Mary-land and they will kiss,and lick illegals feet here! We have the most spineless political morons in the U.S.A.
These vampires deserve to be sued until their noses bleed.
Wrong, I hope the company that hires them get what they deserve. A few court wins for illegals and ever company around will think long and hard about the money he "maybe" saving, until some lawyer comes after his home and car.
That sword cuts both ways, since this company is also [allegedly] profiting from illegal practices.
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