Alabama Injury Attorneys Blog

A carwash worker recently won an $80,000 lawsuit after his employer failed to pay him overtime and failed to provided him with proper employment records.

Thomas Rodriguez, 41, filed the overtime lawsuit against his former employer, Handy J. Carwash, in October, 2010. Rodriguez, originally from Hidalgo, Mexico said "At the time, [when I came to the U.S.] I didn't know much about my rights."

Workers are asked to report to work two or three hours before they are allowed to clock in. Rodriguez stated that his hours were reduced years ago after the owners brought in additional workers to work only for tips. According to Rodriguez, he was unable to make enough money to eat or pay the rent and therefore he then resorted to collecting recyclable bottles, cans and metal to pay the rent.

A Los Angeles Superior County Judge ruled in favor of Rodriguez and cited the carwash owners Scott Arditi, Juan Lucatero, Fari Shoehed, Shariar Shoehed who were liable for $50,000 in back pay and another $30,000 for damages.

There were nine workers initially involved in the overtime lawsuit but due to intimidation, eight declined to continue pursuing the matter. According to one of the organizers with the Clean Carwash Campaign, the use of intimidation tactics immigrant workers is quite common.

In 2008, the Los Angelos Times reported that carwash owners frequently violated immigration laws and state and federal labor laws. They hire illegal immigrants and wind up paying them less than minimum wage often forcing them to work only for tips. The L.A. Times found that between 2003 and 2008, two-thirds of inspected carwashes did not comply with state regulations. Most of these violations included hiring workers under the legal age of employment, declining to pay minimum wage, failing to have worker's compensation insurance and denying employees their breaks.