Dive Brief:
- As part of a consent decree, the attorney general for Illinois has shuttered an employment agency that, among other things, allegedly marketed its ability to provide Latino workers.
- Attorney General Lisa Madigan had alleged in a lawsuit that Xing Ying, an employment agency based in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood, committed numerous federal and state law violations arising from its treatment of immigrant Latino workers. The company acted as an "underground" supplier of workers for Chinese buffet-style restaurants across Illinois, Madigan's office said in a press release.
- In addition to the advertising violations, Xing Ying also unlawfully targeted vulnerable Latino workers and referred them to restaurant jobs where they were consistently underpaid, discriminated against based on their race and national origin, and housed in abysmal conditions, according to the statement. Madigan also entered into two consent decrees with restaurants that involved payment of back wages and penalties, as well as ongoing monitoring of the restaurants’ business practices by the state.
Dive Insight:
Staffing agencies are reporting record demand for contract and temporary workers. The industry saw the highest year-to-year rise in four years this past May, and that demand is only expected to grow.
This, coupled with historically low unemployment, continues to force business to adjust to market conditions. Still, those charged with enforcement aren't turning a blind eye to alleged violations. Other Chicago-area firms recently faced and successfully defended racketeering charges.
Those firms were accused of charging temporary workers for transportation to and from jobs they had arranged. In addition to illegal travel fees, the workers were forced to cash their checks at specified non-bank locations for a fee, and surrender payments to drivers, the claims said. The lawsuit alleged that six staffing agencies were involved and that the practice violated not only state law but also the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as the deductions caused workers' pay to drop below the minimum wage. The court's order did not dismiss all of the claims, however.
Federal enforcement agencies have continued to remind employers that while undocumented employees may be less willing to report wage violations and poor working conditions, they still can be entitled to back pay and damages under the FLSA.