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Qataris in Cambridge get off with $3,000 fine for refusing to pay Filipino maid and taking away her passport
By adamg on Wed, 05/04/2016 - 4:57pm
A Qatari couple who brought their Filipino maid with them when they took up residence in Cambridge had to pay a $3,000 fine for not realizing that in the United States, you're not supposed to withhold a worker's wages or passport when she says she wants to quit, let alone threaten to ship her back to your home country and deal with her there, according to the Massachusetts Attorney General's office.
Local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies teamed up to investigate the actions of Mohammed and Adeela Alyafei, the Attorney General's office reports:
An investigation began in March after there were allegations that a woman had been held against her will and not paid wages by her employers in Cambridge. The investigation revealed that the Alyafeis had travelled from Qatar to Cambridge with their family and brought a domestic worker with them to help care for their children.
Once in Cambridge, the Alyafeis failed to pay the worker for several weeks of work. After the worker requested her wages and asked to return home to the Philippines, the Alyafeis demanded her passport, immediately bought her plane ticket back to Qatar, and threatened to punish her upon her return.
All of that was a violation of the Massachusetts wage and hour and domestic-worker laws, officials say.
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Comments
Wow, just wow.
Three thousand dollar fine for violating the Thirteenth Amendment. Whoopee - hats off to AG Healey for her incompetence on this.
Not to mention the fact that "This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Cotter and Investigator Christina Lopez of AG Healey’s Fair Labor Division, with assistance from Nikki Antonucci, Chief of the AG’s Victim/Witness Services Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, HSI, and the Cambridge Police Department," thereby incurring maybe what, $25k in taxpayer expenses?
What's going on here
Adam's summary sounds like these people should be looking at years in jail, for slavery or kidnapping.
Are we going to get an official clarification?
Maybe the facts are not as bad as they sound?
Or maybe it is an international diplomatic matter?
If it's a diplomatic matter, would compromise be to let off the diplomat/VIP people, and secretly compensate the maid who was denied the rights to which she's entitled by our laws on our turf. (Does she want to stay in the US, and be set up with schooling and a job? Does she want to return to the Philippines, and her family needs money there?)
Why such a light punishment
The people who did this need to be deported. This isn't the first time this will happen.
I agree
They came to our country and broke our laws by basically practicing slavery. It's absolutely disgusting. Shame on our courts for allowing these evil people yo get away with this.
Well, obviously not, Adam.
Well, obviously not, Adam. Because in Qatar, poor people are possessions, not people.
THREE! THOUSAND! DOLLARS!!
Boy, that'll teach 'em!!
Seriously. Thats it? What the
Seriously. Thats it? What the hell. They should be arrested and deported. That shit may fly in their awful country but we banned slave labor long ago.
$3,000!
That will teach them a thing or two about slavery.
In AMERICA if you pull that crap and we'll slap you with an fine equal to what you likely spend on dry cleaning.
According to Google a one way flight from Boston to Qatar for this Friday will run you $1,300. Clearly the $3,000 is going to sting. Lets hope they didn't pre-pay for checked luggage.
The "other"
These people are guests of our country and we must respect their customs and not attempt to assimilate them into our foreign culture and impose our culture on them. We are not a bunch of Trumps.
well...
There's "not imposing our culture," and then there's expecting them to abide by U.S. law. If you go to a foreign country, you should have a passing familiarity with that country's laws, and you should abide by them. Presumably, if they're staying in Cambridge, they're wealthy and educated enough to know what is and isn't legal in this country, and to know what is and isn't culturally permissible - and yet, they still pulled this shit. It sounds to me like something that people who are richer than God, who've never heard the word "no," would do - not like something a couple of uninformed immigrants would do.
It must be so hard for them
to come to a country where they can't punish their employee for wanting to be paid or attempting to quit. Isn't there something we can do to help them feel more at home?
Give them a break
It's just slavery. It's not like they downloaded journal articles or anything.
Wrong prosecutor's office
You see, this was done by Maura Healy, the Commonwealth's chief prosecutor. You are thinking of the Obama administration's U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, Carmen Ortiz. She is responsible for prosecuting blatant violation of copyright law, as that is a federal activity.
If you want, I can explain federalism to you and give examples of the roles of each level of government.
Explain away, smartypants
"This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Cotter and Investigator Christina Lopez of AG Healey’s Fair Labor Division, with assistance from Nikki Antonucci, Chief of the AG’s Victim/Witness Services Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, HSI, and the Cambridge Police Department,"
Let's do it this way
"This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Cotter and Investigator Christina Lopez of AG Healey’s Fair Labor Division, with assistance from Nikki Antonucci, Chief of the AG’s Victim/Witness Services Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, HSI, and the Cambridge Police Department,"
When a different part of the sentence is put in bold, the context kind of changes.
WHOA -- Know the law before you slam Healey!
Folks -- your collective ignorance is showing. You need to understand the role of the AG in pursuing claims under the Wage Act.
The AG's office receives numerous claims of violations of law. Most cases are screened out because of a lack of staff and the complainant is told to go sue. Some cases are screened in for investigation and possible action. The AG can ask a court to impose civil and criminal fines against employers, but the court -- not the AG -- decides the fine. The court cannot impose a greater fine than what is allowed by statute, which is $25,000 for a first willful offense.
The AG can, upon request, allow the employee a separate private right of action if it takes the case. I do not doubt that this happened here. If the employee sues, she can seek treble wages plus attorney's fees. There may be other causes of action for false imprisonment. I strongly suspect that the maid has an attorney who is thrilled to have the case decided, since it will pretty much win the case.
We get it. I don't blame the
We get it. I don't blame the AG, I blame the laws purposefully written in such a way to allow the rich to commit serious crimes with the worse punishment the equivalent of a pocket change fine.
Deportation?
Any way to deport these odious pieces of work?
After all, they won't be happy here if they can't have slaves like they do at home.
At the end of the day....
... I personally think these folks ought to be hung up by their tender parts....
... but if you break it down:
Unless there's overt physical threat or coercion, it's probably very hard to make that stick.
So what you're left with is a pretty vague case that's probably very hard to make stick. Sad.
Or, as a lawyer once explained to me...
... "Being a human POS is not, itself, legally actionable."
Sorry Bob
Your points are logical. But that's not how UHub mob justice works.
$3,000 fine for Human Trafficking???
What happened to vigorous prosecution of those transporting people for the purpose of exploitation?
Don't embarrass yourself with
Don't embarrass yourself with such jingoism. There is no logic in stating "in the United States, you're not supposed to blablabla". They paid a tiny amount by their budget, and a tiny sum compared what a 24/7 employee, be it a domestic, charges an employer. This was upfront slavery, and guess what, it didn't happen in Qatar. It happened in USA.
Typical Behavior
This is typical behavior in Qatar.
Slave labor and withholding passports are normal practices.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/24/un-gives-qatar-year-end-for...
Fun Fact:
Sharia law is the main source of Qatari legislation according to Qatar's Constitution.Flogging and stoning are legal in Qatar due to Sharia law.
Nice people huh ?
find the word "jingoism" in a dictionary
I wasn't commenting on what they do in Qatar. The only point I am making is that these cases are rather frequent in US, so you shouldn't pretend they don't exist in US. Yes, they are more likely in Qatar or Lebanon, but you know what? Compared with USA, they happen far less often in Canada, Australia, Slovenia.
This doesn't sound surprising.
Unfortunately this type of case happens far more often in other countries outside the US. Maid abuse has a long history in Asia and the Middle East and there have been some horrible deaths. This maid is lucky in that this happened in the US where instead of her getting the punishment, it'd be her employers.
I've heard about these type
I've heard about these type of situations before, mostly in CA. They generally are wealthy people who "forget" that in the US we abhor this type of behavior.
I wonder if we'll see more of it as more and more of the extremely wealthy purchase property in the area.
I have no doubts that right now people living in this area under these horrific conditions, who may not be able to get help or even know their rights.
I am sure not all household help brought to this area are informed that they are equals and have rights.
Yeah this never happens here..
... you know, like paying waitresses $2 an hour with no benefits, and witholding tips. At least she had room and board.
Maybe she can seek asylum here and go on welfare, that would be awesome.
People always like to complain about the US "Wah, I have an art histoy degree and financial aid and don't want to work at Starbucks" or how "X lives matter" - they sometimes forget in the parts of the world that some people are treated as property, and other times children are drafted into the army to murder and main. It makes first world problems seem like a whole lot of nothing, doesn't it? It doesn't mean you can't complain about your weak wifi or how 'the man' on wall street is taking away whatever, you will never know the horrors that occur in other societies, you just don't play the capitalism game very well.
Think about that over your low foam latte, while wearing your yoga pants and staring at your smart phone built by child labor in Asia.
You forgot something
In your stupid rant about everyone who doesn't eat meat and potatoes, swill coffee from Dunks, wear dungarees and read the Herald (on real paper not on one of those electronic things, you damn hippies), you forgot to tell them to get off your lawn. You also made the classic "competition to see who's the worst" fallacy. Just because someone somewhere else is being a complete shit doesn't mean you're in the clear for merely being a small smelly turd.