Posted on 06/12/2009 1:25:12 PM PDT by jeannineinsd
Overhill Farms, a major food-processing plant in the L.A. area, terminates more than 200 employees after an IRS audit finds that they had provided 'invalid or fraudulent' Social Security numbers.
No immigration agents descended on Overhill Farms, a major food-processing plant in Vernon. No one was arrested or deported. There were no frantic scenes of desperate workers fleeing la migra through the gritty streets of the industrial suburb southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
For more than 200 Overhill workers, however, the effect was devastating: All lost steady jobs last month and now find themselves in a precarious employment market, without severance pay or medical insurance. It wasn't a hot tip or an undercover informant that helped seal their fates, but a computer check of Social Security numbers.
"A desktop raid" is how the workers' representative, John M. Grant, vice president of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, described the scenario.
Overhill, a $200-million-a-year company that provides frozen meals for clients such as American Airlines, Panda Express, Safeway and Jenny Craig, says it had no choice: An Internal Revenue Service audit found that 260 workers had provided "invalid or fraudulent" Social Security numbers. The government took no action against the workers. But Overhill did: All of the employees were fired May 31.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Good for Overhill. But it's appalling that the government "took no action" against these workers. They're all either illegal aliens or perpetrators of identity theft.
As there appears to be no penalty for using a false SSN, why should any of us provide our valid ones?
There are over two hundred people who will be billed for the taxes that should have been paid because of the reports using their Social Security Number.
At the least, they will be in a higher tax bracket and so have to pay the difference, plus penalties and interest.
How come when white guys get terminated they are not “devastated”?
I checked my tax return and . . . sure enough . . . the attached 1099 had the SSN with two transposed digits. Checked my invoices to them. Right SSN. Looks like someone transcribing the SSN on their end had goofed. Gave them the “right” one again, and they told the IRS that the invalid SSN had been corrected.
I had claimed the income on my return. No harm, no foul. (Sorry Obama — no penalty to give you extra revenue.) But, yeah, this year the IRS is really going over returns.
Wahhhhhhhh.... wahaaaaaaaa... wahhhhhhhhh. What don’t they, and the stinkin’ union, understand about the word “illegal”?
+1 to Overhill.
And just imagine how secure your private financial records are being processed outside the US...
...Outside entities tend to be task oriented and not goal motivated. Demming would cringe. Imagine how a neutral task oriented sytem “profiles” customers. Control is just a “watch list” away...
Sounded to me like the company did the checks on their own.
The origional rules whenever you filed a payroll report they notifired you to correct it or be fined.
There was no way for an employer to make the check themselves.
We got a couple of them over the years from employees transposing numbers on their W-2 which only took a letter to clear it up.
All i’m saying is that the goovwrnment should adhear ro the rule of notifying the employer every time that there is a discrepancy and follow it up with the action the law calls for, firing or fine.
Nothing random, every occurance!
This time they did it from an audit, that’s not what the law says, they are supposed to do this every time there is a discrepancy in a payroll report, W-2, etc.
Cry me a fricken river. It wasn’t even until I read deep in the article that I found that the facility was still open. Documented individuals, not even limited to U.S. citizens are still employed at the company.
ALL businesses are required to make sure their employees are legally able to work. Some form of identification is to be kept on file. As part of the employment process, potential employees are required to state if they are legally qualified to work in the United States.
Say, if a persone has been committing fraud for 70 years, is it then okay for them to continue to do it? “Hey, I’ve been committing fraud for 70 years, and nobody said anything. I was very loyal to my own dictates. How can you fault me now?”
These people should not have just been fired. They should have been booted back to their nation of origin.
“...why is the HR guy or the person in charge of hiring not in jail?”
The union leadership should have some responsibility here as well.
I agree Dale.
An Internal Revenue Service audit found that 260 workers had provided "invalid or fraudulent" Social Security numbers. The government took no action against the workers. But Overhill did: All of the employees were fired May 31.
Apparently you don’t know or understand the law, idiot!
In my first response here, I addressed the reasoned dismissal of the employees who couldn’t provide documentation to prove they could work legally in the United States.
What I didn’t address is the astounding position of the Los Angeles Times.
We have over 10% unemployment in the state. These employees have been working illegally for upwards of thirty years, while U.S. Citizens went wanting for work. And the best the LA Times can do to address this issue, is to do a human interest story on the plight of these poor illegal immigrants.
And the Times wonders why people loathe it like they do.
Isn’t it time to cut more staff at the Times?
There is another way to look at this, we didn’t have to pay to feed them while they awaited deportation back to Mexico, we also didn’t have to pay their fare back either. This may be the way to solve the illegal problem. If done frequently enough, they become self deporting.
I kind of like the sound of that.
“The road that connects the US and Mexico goes both ways. Get on it.”
Indeed. This is exactly as it should be. Enforcement of current laws is all that is required to deal with the immigration problem. The Libs and McCain (both the same), who squirmed during the election when asked about enforcement, desperately seized on the excuse that it would be impossible to move illegal aliens out of the country.
Newsflash: It’s now happening, and at the illegal’s own expense, as it should be. If the jobs aren’t available, they’re less likely to stick around. Many on the Front Range are actually heading south. Nice to see, after watching the Americanos buses heading north, packed to the gills last year.
wow.....almost every single person mentioned or quoted in the article should either be in jail or tarred and feathered.
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