Forty-two migrant workers have filed a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart claiming that Wal-Mart knowingly hired them as undocumented workers through outside contractors and then proceeded to exploit them for the profit of the company. The complaint says Wal-Mart attempted to cut costs, duck federal taxes, and avoid paying health insurance and other benefits required by the employment of legal workers. As a result, the company “created a criminal enterprise that involved conspiracies to violate, as well as substantive violations, of federal immigration laws and other laws.”
The workers, primarily of Eastern European origin, say Wal-Mart regularly forced them to work seven days a week and for more than forty hours per week, and then refused to pay overtime. Wal-mart also allegedly withheld regular wages, routinely locked night cleaning crews in stores against their will, and paid workers under the table by cash or personal check via shell corporations.
Wal-Mart reportedly routinely transported illegal workers across state lines to work in different Wal-Mart stores. The plaintiffs also say that Wal-Mart runs “multiple shell corporations so as to shield the continued employment of the migrants from detection” and that “senior Wal-Mart executives … knew of the scheme” and “permitted it to flourish.”
The law office of Callahan & Blaine is California’s premier litigation firm, specializing in class action employment lawsuits. In a similar class action employment law case that took place in Orange County, California, Callahan & Blaine lawyers negotiated a $42 million settlement for a group paper carriers denied employment rights by the Orange County Register.
If you believe you have been wrongfully terminated or discriminated against by an employer, contact California’s premier litigation firm, Callahan & Blaine, to discuss your employment law case today.
