Typhoon
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The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries will seek to recover at least $250000 in damages for Thai workers it says were discriminated against.
Typhoon
Everton Bailey Jr./The OregonianTyphoon, a regional Thai restaurant chain, closed its West Linn location on June 30 after less than a year. A company's co-owners said a combination of lower than usual revenue and high legal fees to combat lawsuits led to the closure.
State regulators have formally charged an Oregon Thai restaurant chain with unlawful labor practices and said they would seek more than $2 million in damages for Thai cooks allegedly discriminated against based on national origin.
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries today announced the formal charges against Tigard-based Typhoon Inc. and president Bo Kline.
The agency first alleged in May that Typhoon had discriminated against its Thai workers, using special work visas and employment contracts to pay them less, work them longer and subject them to less favorable working conditions than their non-Thai peers.
The findings stemmed from an eight-month investigation after Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian used special authority to file a complaint against the chain and its co-owners, Steve and Bo Kline. Steve Kline, Bo's husband, died in August.
The Oregonian?s continuing coverage of the Typhoon restaurant discrimination case.Jim Thomas, an adviser to the board of Typhoon, declined comment.
The case now is scheduled to go before an administrative law judge May 15, though civil rights cases often settle before a hearing. Agency Deputy Commissioner Doug McKean will make a final decision based on the judge's findings.
The agency said it plans to seek $250,000 for each Thai national who suffered emotionally, mentally and physically after being required to sign employment contracts with Typhoon. The contracts imposed unfair conditions and penalties on at least 13 workers, agency spokesman Bob Estabrook said, including former chefs Suchart and Nualjira Treemeth.
In addition, the agency said it will try to recover wages for at least 11 Thai cooks who it alleges were paid less than U.S. citizens in Typhoon's Beaverton, Portland and Gresham restaurants. It will also seek to boost the pay of current Thai cooks.
Typhoon operates restaurants in Portland, Gresham, Beaverton and Redmond, Wash. The chain earlier this year shut its West Linn and flagship downtown Portland locations.
Since 1997, Typhoon and Bo Kline have used E-2 visas issued by the U.S. State Department to bring more than 100 cooks from Thailand to work at its restaurants, the agency said.
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It won't be long before the right-wing nut jobs go after The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Can't have them pesky regulations get in the way of business as usual!
Oregon with 10% unemployment and businesses are getting visas to import workers for low- and semi-skilled restaurant jobs. While the unemployed whine for endless unemployment checks food stamps and rent subsidies. When FDR was president the unemployed raced to get those jobs like today's dependency class race for food stamp and federal disability applications.
Therein lies one significant reason why America cannot pull itself out of its depression like it did in the 1930s-40s. The character of the American people has changed and it hasn't been for the better. A people who once valued hard work and discipline, who once turned their noses up at social dependency like striped prison garb now prefer public dependency to honest labor. God forbid an unemployed mid level manager social worker or factory foreman stoop to taking a restaurant job. Oh the sheer inhumane indignity of actually having to work instead of taking a government check!
Those unfortunate victimized Thai workers have one thing they can take pride in. In terms of character, spirit, backbone, they stand as far above the American check-mongering dependency class as a lumberjack stands over a mouse. They'd rather work than beg or steal and that makes them worth a lot more than those social dependents who chose the opposite.
You're blaming American workers for this company virtually enslaving Thai nationals under illegal contract terms under the pretense of obtaining a green card?
I'm sure there's plenty of out of work Americans with a decent flair for Asian cuisine. They're just not going to work below minimum wage. Does the tea party seek the repeal of the minimum wage, or the requirement to pay any wage whatsoever? Yes, let all Americans work in exchange for crowded barracks and a serving and a half of gruel per day.
What pulled the United States out of the depression was World War II. The public works projects FDR tried weren't enough but the war building machine for WW II was like the public works projects on steroids.
Unfortunately the Republicans and all the Tea Party folks that have been duped by the billionaires are doing their best to make sure as little as possible public works projects get money when anyone in their right mind would be pushing for them instead.
The problem is two fold, one it isn't about work ethic it is about the ethics of businesses these days. Businesses will do anything for a dollar today and the banks are a perfect example of how they are trying to enslave people with credit cards they probably shouldn't have and student loans that will leave them in debt for most if not all their adult lives.
And secondly the Republicans are willing to sacrifice the United States economy and all the unemployed if it prevents Obama from being re-elected president. The Republicans are using the same "fuzzy math" and "voodoo economics" they have been using for decades to the detriment of the American people and the rich get richer.
The Republicans and many of the Democrats no longer serve the people they were elected to serve, they are prostitutes to the corporate contributions that help them get re-elected.
Are the commenters here really this bad at reading comprehension? This story has nothing to do with entitlements or unemployment benefits. This is has nothing to do with rental assistance or food stamps.
This article is about discrimination and just that. I do question as to whether or not the damages really add up to $250,000 per employee.
Thanks to the liberals who encourage illegals to come and/or overstay their visa this kind of exploitation has continued. The $250,000 is to send a message to other employers, not just to compensate the victims.