Ogdensburg, NY – The state Department of Labor has ruled that the former owner of the kosher cheese plant here owes nearly 70 workers for a week of unpaid labor and vacation.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The department ordered Ahava of California, LLC, Venice, Calif., to pay $52,286 to employees and the state for wages, vacation, penalties and interest.
The company has 60 days to either comply with the order or appeal the decision to the state Industrial Board of Appeals.
Attorney David P. Antonucci of Watertown, representing Ahava Foods, declined to comment.
According to state DOL spokeswoman Karen A. Will-iamson, 44 workers were not paid for labor between July 19 and 25. The employees will split $18,346, which includes unpaid wages and interest.
Twenty-five workers will split $8,507 because Ahava did not pay promised vacation pay when the company was taken over by Toobro LLC, of Hewlett Neck, Ms. Williamson said.
“There was no forfeiture clause, so they had to pay it,” Ms. Williamson said.
In July 2008, the city foreclosed on the factory, which makes “cholov yisroel” grade kosher cheese and milk, because the company owed $90,000 in rent and $618,138 in utility bills.
Operations continued until February when the state Department of Agriculture and Markets suspended its operating permit and seized 25,000 pounds of cheese.
Toobro purchased the assets of Ahava Food Corp., including a similar cheese-making plant in Lowville, in February, and the city agreed to sell the plant to Toobro in May.
The remaining $25,433 from the order will go the state’s general fund as civil penalties, Ms. Williamson said.
The Main Street plant currently employs about 60 workers.
Ms. Williamson declined to name the complainants.
Ahava joins AgriProcessors and Rubashkin among the growing list of yiddeshe firms that have tried to steal from their workers who can least afford to lose these wages and benefits they are entitled to. What ever happened to the midos of yiddeshe businesses where the owners felt they had a personal obligation to their workers as an ethical matter, but I guess ethics is now an oxymoron when we speak of jewish business.
They did not steal wages. There was a conflict as to who is responsible for them. Ahava will argue that since it was taken over by the City, its the city that must pay the salaries of the employees.
That’s the punch line, getting Cholov Yisroel milk at the expense of the workers.
Be careful and watch the price of all Cholov Yisroel is slowly going up and will all soon be the same price. The new companies you see are from companies that keep on opening, going out of business and reopening under a new name. In our family we just stick to the standard. And now you see, all at the expense of workers with their goal to put a Yid in business for many years out of business so he can have a monopoly and then charge you whatever his heart desires.
The city should not have to pay what someone pocketed or could not pay because was selling so low that he could not cover expenses. That is false intentions or stealing!
THis is an old case pertaining to former owners of a business, who fell apart largely because they were too decent and were often taken advantage of. It has nothing to do with the more astute present owners.