A federal judge in Chicago has found that a suburban car wash tried to intimidate its mostly Hispanic employees by requiring verification of their immigration status after three workers complained about alleged sexual harassment.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman issued a protective order May 5 barring
Glenview Car Wash from seeking further information about employees'
immigration status until a pending harassment suit concludes.
The class-action suit, filed on behalf of the car wash's male employees in
September by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, is based on
charges filed with that agency by Federico Antimo, Elmer Bethancourt and
Diego Perez.
The suit alleges the trio "had been subjected to, among other things,
unwelcome touching and offers of sex from the car wash manager, Anthony
Fillichio."
An attorney for the car wash, Peter Andjelkovich, said there is no evidence
to support the harassment allegations. He said he is reviewing Guzman's
order and considering an appeal.
The car wash simply was trying to comply with federal law by asking
employees to fill out forms verifying that they are authorized to work, he
said. The forms, which are supposed to be filled out before employees start
work, require workers to certify under penalty of perjury that they are
citizens, permanent residents or authorized to work.
Andjelkovich said the family-owned business discovered its personnel files
were incomplete while providing documents to the EEOC.
"There was no evidence of anyone being intimidated," he added.
http://tinyurl.com/yqr7u
A business owner tries to follow federal law and is slapped down by a judge. Is it any wonder conservatives are up in arms about judges passing law from the bench? Judges are to enforce the law, not make it.
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