By Connor Adams Sheets
Workers from a Flushing car service company gathered in downtown Manhattan last week to call on the U.S. Department of Labor to launch a criminal investigation into two of its special agents who they contend threatened employees with deportation during an investigation of the outfit’s labor practices.
The company’s employees, with the support of the Justice Will Be Served! campaign — a group that fights to protect the rights of workers — allege that Tony Luo, founder and owner of Yes Car Service, mistreated them for years.
A representative for Yes Car Service and Jeff Lagda, a spokesman for the Labor Department’s office of the inspector general, both declined to comment.
Since September 2009, 20 workers have publicly claimed that Luo deployed “gang tactics, threats and harassment” against workers at the company, which is headquartered on the fifth floor of 133-60 41st St.
Between 2009 and 2010, a number of drivers complained to the Labor Department about Luo’s alleged abuses, which they say include failure to pay wages, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance, among other charges, the campaign said.
The department responded Aug. 2 by sending a letter to Yes Car Service reprimanding the company and saying its employees are not independent contractors even though Luo treated them as such. The agency said the workers are actual employees, meaning he was required to provide them with back unemployment insurance payments dating as far back as the first quarter of 2009.
Luo appealed that decision Aug. 24 and the Department of Labor held several hearings this past winter, and three former employees provided sworn testimony, according to Justice Will Be Served! The investigation is continuing.
But in April 2011, a number of special agents for the department allegedly visited the drivers’ homes and forced them to lie under oath in order to supersede their previous testimony, the campaign said, and allegedly threatened the drivers that they would be arrested and deported if they did not comply.
“Three agents who identified themselves as U.S. DOL agents … said that if I did not cooperate, then I would lose my immigration status,” Yes Car Service driver Bi Sheng Liu said in a statement. “They said, ‘I see your two children. They’re so small and have to go to school pretty soon. Breaking apart such a nice family will be a tragedy. You better cooperate with us.’”
At the rally in Manhattan employees, Justice Will Be Served! representatives and supporters called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate and prosecute special agents Kenneth Jacoutut and Ray Yian, who the campaign has said allegedly committed the abuses.
“The DOL should not allow its agents to use their power to promote sweatshops and attack those workers who come forward to file complaints,” Tracy Kwon, a Justice Will Be Served! organizer, wrote in a letter addressed to the U.S. Department of Justice and Holder. “The DOL absolutely should not allow its agents to suppress workers who speak out.”
Justice Will Be Served! is a coalition composed of members of the Chinese Staff & Workers’ Association, 318 Restaurant Workers Union and National Mobilization Against SweatShops.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
