Jury Finds Employer Liable for Retaliating Against Undocumented Worker

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, December 18, 2003 -- Macan Singh, 33, an Indian immigrant worker whose employer reported him to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) after he filed a claim for years of unpaid wages, won an important Federal court victory today. An 8-person jury found Charanjit Jutla, an owner of several Bay Area gas stations, liable for retaliation under federal and state laws. Jutla was ordered to pay compensatory and punitive damages totaling $200,000 for reporting Singh to the INS, which subsequently arrested and jailed him for over one year.

"The jury sent a clear signal - that the all-too-many employers who try to use the immigration authorities as unwitting accomplices in their unlawful retaliation will be held accountable, and will pay dearly for their illegal acts," said Christopher Ho, a senior staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center (LAS-ELC), one of the organizations representing Singh. "This verdict is a victory for immigrant workers."

In 1995, Jutla - who is Singh's paternal uncle - arranged to have Singh unlawfully trafficked into the United States. Beginning the very day after his arrival in the Bay Area, Singh was made to work - without pay - 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for nearly 3 years at Jutla's various gas stations. In 1999, with the help of LAS-ELC's Wage Claims Project, Singh filed a wage claim with the California Labor Commissioner, winning an award of almost $70,000. In an attempt to avoid paying the subsequent out-of-court settlement, Jutla reported Singh to the INS.

Today's jury verdict found Jutla, along with his spouse and their closely-held corporation, liable under the anti-retaliation provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the California Labor Code, as well as for causing severe emotional distress to Singh.

"What these defendants did to Macan not only violates Federal and state workplace laws, but also is repugnant to the basic American values of justice and fair play," said Ho. "These wealthy defendants not only tried to take advantage of Macan through the thousands of unbearable hours they forced him to labor; they also hoped to get the INS to do their dirty work for them by deporting Macan, and to get off scot-free from having to pay him what they lawfully owed him. Luckily - for both Macan and the public's interest in preventing workplace exploitation - they failed." Singh is currently in deportation proceedings before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the new federal department overseeing the former INS, which was divided into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) agencies in November, 2002. It is unclear how long he will be able to remain in the United States.

"Particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court's adverse decision last year in Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, today's outcome is a powerful reaffirmation that undocumented workers do indeed continue to have legal rights in this country - among other things, the right to be protected from the malicious threat of retaliation that keeps so many immigrant workers fearful and reluctant to assert their rights against exploitation," said Marielena HincapiŽ, a staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center (NILC).

Singh was represented by Christopher Ho of the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center (LAS-ELC), Marielena HincapiŽ of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and Diane Webb and William Friedman of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. The trial took place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, and was presided over by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer.

News of the verdict received national and international coverage. Read the AP story.

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