Undocumented Immigrant May Get Deported After Calling Out Wage Theft [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Undocumented Immigrant May Get Deported After Calling Out Wage Theft
By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee on Jul 10, 2013 at 12:30 pm

Antonio Vanegas may be deported because he filed a complaint against his employer over unpaid hours at a food court restaurant, according to the Huffington Post on Tuesday. The Guatemala native was detained for four days after exposing labor violations at the pita shop where he worked. He now faces a deportation hearing in August.

Vanegas, a federal contract worker at Quick Pita inside DC’s Ronald Reagan Building, said that he worked upwards of sixty hours a week, but did not receive overtime pay. He claimed that he was paid $6.50 an hour under the table even though federal law dictates that contract workers like Vanegas should make the local prevailing wage — $8.25 an hour in DC.

Vanegas’s legal status was never an issue during his three years of working at Quick Pita, even though numerous police officers and immigration agents made up his customer base. Only when he was vocal about being underpaid and overworked did the Federal Protective Service, a security branch of the Department of Homeland Security, show up to take away Vanegas’s work badge. At the same time, he was turned over to immigration officials. He also lost his job.

Vanegas is hardly the only exploited federal contract worker. The Department of Labor is investigating allegations of wage theft and inhumane working conditions of other food venues in the Ronald Reagan Building. Meanwhile, the federal government employs more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart and McDonalds combined. Contract workers in the Reagan building organized a strike in May. Ten workers were initially fired for striking. They were later given their jobs back.

More:
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/07/10/2276121/dc-undocumented-immigrant-wage-theft/