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Postville, IA - Agriprocessor Slaughterhouse Unlikely to Pay Reduced Fines |
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Published on:
Jul 28, 2009 at 09:53 PM
News Source: The Des Moines Register
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Iowa Workforce Development last week agreed to slash a proposed $10 million fine against Agriprocessors, Inc., to $1 million. The fines were based on allegations the company made illegal deductions from employee paychecks.
Dan Childers, an attorney for Agriprocessors' bankruptcy trustee, says the company is unlikely to make the payments because the fines are accorded a lower priority than other debts.
Childers says the fines could be paid from money the trustee recovers from payments the company made before it declared bankruptcy.
The deal still must be approved by a judge.
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Read Comments (12) — Post Yours »
1
Jul 28, 2009 at 11:06 PM Hate em Tatem Says:
"Childers says the fines could be paid from money the trustee recovers from payments the company made before it declared bankruptcy."
Avoiding preferences will just give the money back to the bankruptcy estate. That money will likely go to the banks, who were probably secured creditors. In addition, the state and federal tax authorities have priority over administrative fines.
Good luck labor agency. You destroyed a hard working, caring person's life and now you cannot get your money.
2
Jul 29, 2009 at 06:06 AM Charles Hall Says:
Wouldn't the company be halachically required at least to refund the money it illegally deducted from its employees' paychecks?
3
Jul 29, 2009 at 04:56 AM Litvak Says:
“ "Childers says the fines could be paid from money the trustee recovers from payments the company made before it declared bankruptcy."
Avoiding preferences will just give the money back to the bankruptcy estate. That money will likely go to the banks, who were probably secured creditors. In addition, the state and federal tax authorities have priority over administrative fines.
Good luck labor agency. You destroyed a hard working, caring person's life and now you cannot get your money. ”
"Good luck labor agency. You destroyed a hard working, caring person's life and now you cannot get your money.”
I do not understand why you think that the labor agency destroyed Rubashkin. IWD saw that some of the workers were not paid. That is against the law. There are fines prescribed in the law that were written before Agri came to Iowa.
IWD saw that the workers were charged for their frocks. Agri was the only meat plant in the entire state of Iowa that charged for their frocks. It is illegal to charge for certain clothings that are not safety related. That law was written before Agri came to Iowa. The penalties were on the books before Agri came to Iowa.
Did Agri reimburse the employees for their owed salaries and for their clothing expenses? If not, there are certain halachic issues that trump over state laws, that would make the owners who were responsible at that time to make payments.
Again, how did the labor agency ruin the company???
4
Jul 29, 2009 at 07:44 AM Crackberry613 Says:
“ "Good luck labor agency. You destroyed a hard working, caring person's life and now you cannot get your money.”
I do not understand why you think that the labor agency destroyed Rubashkin. IWD saw that some of the workers were not paid. That is against the law. There are fines prescribed in the law that were written before Agri came to Iowa.
IWD saw that the workers were charged for their frocks. Agri was the only meat plant in the entire state of Iowa that charged for their frocks. It is illegal to charge for certain clothings that are not safety related. That law was written before Agri came to Iowa. The penalties were on the books before Agri came to Iowa.
Did Agri reimburse the employees for their owed salaries and for their clothing expenses? If not, there are certain halachic issues that trump over state laws, that would make the owners who were responsible at that time to make payments.
Again, how did the labor agency ruin the company??? ”
Who says the company hasn't yet refunded the employees their money? This article is about the fine, not the employee’s salaries.
Despite some of the "alleged" wrongs at Agri, the INS and the Labor Dept were goaded by PETA and the Unions (who each had their own agenda) to destroy the company. Unfortunately they were successful in their endeavor. Instead of doing a raid and arresting en-mass employees who were here illegally, they could of worked with Rubashkin and over time made sure that all of his employees were legal. As evidenced by the letters from Rubashkin's lawyers before the raid, Rubashkin was willing to work with government to fire any employees that were known to be illegal. Unlike the government, corporations don’t have the ability to identify which employee documents are fraudulent or real. Instead the government raided and arrested more than 50% of the employees. Many of these arrests and forced deportations were illegal and were thrown out subsequently by the courts.
5
Jul 29, 2009 at 07:27 AM yosse nathan Says:
after what happened with Chrysler and gm who knows if being a secured creditor really means anything.
6
Jul 29, 2009 at 08:15 AM Meatloaf Says:
#4
The company did not reimburse employees for illegal deductions. Frocks are USDA required equipment that companies are required to supply workers. When I mentioned this practice to others in the kosher food production business they were in shock and couldn't believe he actually did this.
Agri charged its line employees $2.00 per pay period for a clean smock. Multiply this $2.00 per pay period times the number of emplyoees, times 26 pay periods, times x number of years and you'll find that Agri made $40,000+/year or $200,000 over five years, off of its own employees. The actual frock deductions goes back even further then 5 years, so the ill gotten gains were much larger than $200,000. This is not chicken feed.
Point is that all the "tzedakah" Rubashkin gave away, was really money he stole from his employees. BTW, this practice did not stop until months after the raid in May, when I pressume Rubashkin attorney's explained to Aaron, Heshy and Shalom that continuing the practice could land them in even bigger trouble.
7
Jul 29, 2009 at 09:10 AM yank Says:
“ Who says the company hasn't yet refunded the employees their money? This article is about the fine, not the employee’s salaries.
Despite some of the "alleged" wrongs at Agri, the INS and the Labor Dept were goaded by PETA and the Unions (who each had their own agenda) to destroy the company. Unfortunately they were successful in their endeavor. Instead of doing a raid and arresting en-mass employees who were here illegally, they could of worked with Rubashkin and over time made sure that all of his employees were legal. As evidenced by the letters from Rubashkin's lawyers before the raid, Rubashkin was willing to work with government to fire any employees that were known to be illegal. Unlike the government, corporations don’t have the ability to identify which employee documents are fraudulent or real. Instead the government raided and arrested more than 50% of the employees. Many of these arrests and forced deportations were illegal and were thrown out subsequently by the courts.
”
Except when the company is manufacturing the green cards. Then I think they know who is illegal. :)
8
Jul 29, 2009 at 08:51 AM Charlie Hall Says:
“ Who says the company hasn't yet refunded the employees their money? This article is about the fine, not the employee’s salaries.
Despite some of the "alleged" wrongs at Agri, the INS and the Labor Dept were goaded by PETA and the Unions (who each had their own agenda) to destroy the company. Unfortunately they were successful in their endeavor. Instead of doing a raid and arresting en-mass employees who were here illegally, they could of worked with Rubashkin and over time made sure that all of his employees were legal. As evidenced by the letters from Rubashkin's lawyers before the raid, Rubashkin was willing to work with government to fire any employees that were known to be illegal. Unlike the government, corporations don’t have the ability to identify which employee documents are fraudulent or real. Instead the government raided and arrested more than 50% of the employees. Many of these arrests and forced deportations were illegal and were thrown out subsequently by the courts.
”
You are incorrect regarding the employee identification. The government sent Agriprocessors hundreds of warnings about the status of its employees over a period of many years. There is no evidence that Agriprocessors did anything to correct these problems.
The week of the raid, Iowa newspapers reported that the union had been tipped off and had then attempted to intervene with the government to have it call off the raid. That isn't exactly trying to destroy the company.
And there is no excuse for a company not to follow local labor law -- it is in fact a halachic requirement to follow the minhag hamakom in treatment of employees as anyone learning daf yomi knows. And any competent Iowa attorney could tell an employer what was required.
9
Jul 29, 2009 at 09:40 AM Hate em Tatem Says:
“ You are incorrect regarding the employee identification. The government sent Agriprocessors hundreds of warnings about the status of its employees over a period of many years. There is no evidence that Agriprocessors did anything to correct these problems.
The week of the raid, Iowa newspapers reported that the union had been tipped off and had then attempted to intervene with the government to have it call off the raid. That isn't exactly trying to destroy the company.
And there is no excuse for a company not to follow local labor law -- it is in fact a halachic requirement to follow the minhag hamakom in treatment of employees as anyone learning daf yomi knows. And any competent Iowa attorney could tell an employer what was required.
”
The preceeding message was brought to you by Rep. Steve King, R-IA, who only cares about one issue and one issue only: immigration.
10
Jul 29, 2009 at 02:13 PM Crackberry613 Says:
“ Except when the company is manufacturing the green cards. Then I think they know who is illegal. :) ”
There is no evidence of that. Just allegations which have yet to be proven.
11
Jul 29, 2009 at 02:11 PM Crackberry613 Says:
“ You are incorrect regarding the employee identification. The government sent Agriprocessors hundreds of warnings about the status of its employees over a period of many years. There is no evidence that Agriprocessors did anything to correct these problems.
The week of the raid, Iowa newspapers reported that the union had been tipped off and had then attempted to intervene with the government to have it call off the raid. That isn't exactly trying to destroy the company.
And there is no excuse for a company not to follow local labor law -- it is in fact a halachic requirement to follow the minhag hamakom in treatment of employees as anyone learning daf yomi knows. And any competent Iowa attorney could tell an employer what was required.
”
A corporation is in no position to determine which employee ID is fraudulent and which is authentic. Nor are they required to by law to reach out to the authorities to ask if the ID submitted by an employee is valid or not. Only the government is in a position to do that and when Agri reached out and asked for assistance, they were turned down because of the agenda of PETA and the Unions.
Regarding the Unions: If it is true that they knew the government was going to do the raid and tried to intervene, it was only because they realized too late what the raid was going to do to the company. Which is to destroy it. No company meant no employees and no chance of unionizing them. There is an old saying, "be careful of what you ask for as you just might get it".
12
Jul 29, 2009 at 02:51 PM To Meatloaf and Charlie Hall Says:
Your bias against Rubashkin is self evident.
You are incensed re a charge for frocks. Puleease. This is hardly a matter on which a company must be destroyed over. The company paid its taxes, it paid its employees, it paid them for overtime, etc, etc. So there was a small deduction that was considered to be improper. Apparently, the company was following legal advice that believed it was a proper deduction according to the law.
The normal way of dealing with an improperly applied minor deduction is to make the necessary reimbursement, and perhaps pay a small fine. That would be the normal path.
However, as time goes by, it becomes patently clear, that every part of this "enormous scandal" is crumbling. Aside from the supposed hiring of illegals (like 75% of American factories and households - and many other meat factories, larger ones too), there is hardly anything there.
"Wire fraud" - they FAXED a document to a bank.
"Illegal Frock Deductions" - every other aspect of their payroll was by the book, so this is magnified a 1,000 times over.
"Employing minors" - so some of the supposed illegals who falsified documents to get a job, also lied about their age.
And then there was the "big one" which only took place AFTER the government strangled the company, and they were struggling to stay afloat, so then they are accused of lying to a bank about how much cash they had available. So first you try drowning me, then you accuse me of acting violently when my hands are flailing in all directions.
The Sodomites in their inventive methods of cruelty, never got that resourceful.