Resort employers cheat guest workers, state finds

The young workers came from Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, spending their money to work in summer resort towns desperate for labor. Many of them were cheated out of wages and overtime pay or docked pay to cover room and board. They often worked jobs that violated child labor laws.

A state investigation last year found that nearly 200 foreign workers were cheated by several companies in the Lake George area, a collection of resort towns an hour north of Albany. The state ordered the businesses to repay the employees, plus interest, and pay state fines.

Some of the companies are appealing the ruling and, more than four months later, about 180 students who worked for the companies between 2002 and 2006 are still owed $103,000 in pay, interest and fines, according to state Department of Labor records.

“Forcing these international students to work overtime without pay is criminal,” said Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, a human rights organization. “To overcharge them for rent, what an image it gives. These students go back as ambassadors to their countries. What they’ll have to say about the United States is that this is a nasty experience.”

Nationally, the Southern Poverty Law Center found “legal guest workers” in the U.S., in some cases students, are at risk for abuse and exploitation. A report issued in 2007 by the center said many workers were promised higher wages or were given fewer weeks of work than promised.

In 2006, the most recent data available from the U.S. State Department, about 600,000 guest workers were issued U.S. visas, not including highly trained workers, athletes and entertainers.

In many cases, workers are unable to dig out of the debt -- ranging from $500 to $10,000 -- incurred just to get to the United States, according to the report.

Shu-Ting “Sandy” Chang, a 22-year-old college student from Taiwan, said she traveled to St. Louis in the summer of 2006 to work at a Six Flags resort park. There, she lived with three other students in one room -- instead of the two-person quarters promised her -- far from work. She and other international workers took a bus that ran twice a day, at 10:30 a.m. and 10 p.m.

“Even if we got off work in the afternoon, all we could do is wait, or people [would] just keep working,” Chang said in an e-mail interview. “Then that made me feel really, really exhausted.”

She earned about $1,000 for the summer as a deep-fry cook, after her title was described as hostess. It cost her $2,200 to get to the U.S., plus rent. She described the experience as “painful.”

Elizabeth Gotway, a spokeswoman for Six Flags, said the company in 2006 met with some students who approached the company with complaints and misunderstandings. She said another company helped recruit the international workers for them to hire, which may have led to some miscommunication.

“And at the end of those meetings and talking with them, we were able to address all of their concerns, and if we were not able to change them or fix them, then we were able to better communicate with them and they could understand why” certain things couldn’t be changed, she said.

In New York, only 15 workers have been repaid by Lake George area hotels and businesses named in the state Labor Department probe. Three of the companies are appealing Labor’s decision to the state Industrial Board of Appeals, according to documents the Associated Press obtained through the state Freedom of Information Law.

The Labor Department said S.J. Garcia’s restaurant in Lake George owed $42,745.13 in unpaid wages and fines. Ramada Express in Queensbury owed $14,209.26, and Quality Inn and Econo Lodge & Suites in Queensbury jointly owed $46,505.22. The students are owed $8 to nearly $3,000, an average of about $340, according to documents.

So far, the Labor Department has successfully contacted and repaid three of four former employees of Taste of Poland restaurant, which paid $4,206.88 in back pay and fines. S.J. Garcia’s agreed to repay 12 former employees a total of $3,020.39 for paying below minimum wage, but none of those checks has cleared, according to Labor officials. Several have been returned as undeliverable and others are still “in limbo.”

If the agency can’t locate any of the students, the money they earned will go to the state.

S.J. Garcia’s is still contesting most of what the state says it owes for improperly deducting pay for lodging.

The companies argue that the students, or the federal government, had agreed to housing deductions, or the dates of employment were incorrectly listed.

Sam Bhatti, the owner of the Quality Inn in Glens Falls, said he arranged the student employment through the federal government. He said the government approved housing costs of $70 a week to stay in the hotel -- a fraction of what he could have charged for the rooms.

“They have a choice to stay or not. . . . In the summer they will not find accommodation anywhere that cheap,” Bhatti said.

He said he wouldn’t arrange housing for international workers anymore.

“I have a right to fight back,” he said of the Labor Department’s decision.

S.J. Garcia’s did not return calls seeking comment for this story.