From the Albany Times-Union: Lake George workers exploited, state says

Summer employees from overseas were cheated out of rightful wages, investigators determine

LAKE GEORGE — The operators of several restaurants and hotels in this upstate tourist region exploited foreign workers and cheated them of proper wages this past summer, the state Department of Labor said Monday.

Five businesses in Lake George and two hotels in Queensbury stand accused of infractions which include breaking child labor laws, refusing to pay required overtime and deducting rent from wages, said Leo Rosales, the department’s communications director.

The agency has issued more than $120,000 in fines to the establishments for back wages and penalties.

Cited were SJ Garcia’s for $47,766; the Quality Inn and adjoining Econo Lodge in Queensbury for $46,505; Ramada Express for $14,209; and Depe Dene for $3,200.

Taste of Poland has agreed to pay $4,207 and Choice Inn & Suites (formerly Mohawk Motel) has settled for $4,442, Rosales said.

The cases involve dozens of young student workers from Poland, Ukraine, Russia and other countries, who arrived in the U.S. on J1 visas, a cultural exchange program that allows them to work here for a limited time, Rosales said.

Irena Lyahkanova from Russia said she worked like a “slave” at Taste of Poland restaurant for “nothing.” The owners did not pay any of its tipped employees, the 10 to 12 waitresses and bussers through the summer, Lyahkanova said. Many went back to Russia and Poland with no money.

“We were all afraid that we would be deported,” she said. “I am only 19 and (had) no money to go home with.”

Village Mayor Robert Blais reported the alleged violations to the Labor Department recently after several young workers visited the Foreign Student Connection Office in Lake George to complain that employers were withholding wages.

The connection locates employment and housing for hundreds of seasonal workers from overseas each year. The village set up the operation in 2004 due to complaints by visiting workers of pay issues, discrimination and abuse.

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After Blais contacted the state, labor standards investigators visited the businesses to examine payroll records and interviewed employees about working conditions, Rosales said.

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The businesses can dispute the citations or pay them, Rosales said. The workers who said they were defrauded will receive the settlement payments, which combine back wages or illegal deductions plus interest.

To help prevent future violations, the department will conduct education programs in Lake George and other resort areas next year and follow up with targeted enforcement sweeps during summer months.

“The department will aggressively enforce the state’s labor laws to protect all workers, particularly the most vulnerable workers,” state Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith said. “It is disappointing to learn that these employers took advantage of several young foreign workers who are far from home and family. They should be treated with dignity and respect and not cheated out of their hard earned money.”

I am continually amazed when I run across people who, in rather quiet discussion, carp on, complaining about this that or another group who all stick together. I’ve run across a large number of Poles who love to go on about one or another group, thinking that that group sticks together so well, so much so that they achieve unprecedented levels of control.

Of course, the reality is quite different. No one is all that loyal anymore, especially to their ethnic or even religious heritage.

Still in all, I find this news quite disturbing. If you are a successful Pole, and you can’t treat other immigrants and guest workers with common decency, well your business will suffer.

I suppose that’s why those who have eaten at Taste of Poland have found the food expensive and less than adequate. The practice of the owner pervades the business.

Hopefully this will be a wake-up call for this and the other businesses. If not, hopefully it will be their death knell. Then others who are smarter about their business practice can step in and do a much better job.