An update on a report we brought to you about a month ago: Thai workers subjected to inhuman practices by Global Horizons, Inc. saw victory in a lawsuit against the staffing firm.
A judge recently ordered Los Angeles staffing firm and its president, Mordechai Orian, to pay $347,000 in back wages and penalties for violating the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program.
Global Horizons had lured the workers to America from 2003-07, promising them temporary visas and high wages to work on farms.
Once the workers arrived, however, the tune changed.
The workers were stripped of their identity, placed under horrendous living conditions and subjected to torment and abuse. The firm refused to even pay them hourly wages, according to the lawsuit.
The EEOC and Thai Community Development Center took on Global Horizons, and won.
According to the Department of Labor, Global Horizons was found guilty of the following:
- Not paying employees for all hours worked, or at the correct hourly rate
- Incorrectly withholding federal income tax while making illegal deductions
- Charging the workers for housing-related expenses such as utilities
- Failing to pay the workers for their cost of living
- Retatliating against those who complained
- Failing to maintain payroll records
- Illegally soliciting agreements from workers to waive their rights
In addition to punitive damages, the firm is prohibited from participating in the H-2A program for three years.
Global Horizons must pay $153,000 to the workers in back wages to 88 of the Thai workers, and $194,000 in civil penalties.
Naturally, Orian denies his treachery and claims to have paid all the workers.
In a last-ditch effort to save himself, he vowed to seek an appeal for the ruling.
