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Computer 'raid' in Vernon leaves factory workers devastated
Los Angeles Times ^ | June 12, 2009 | Patrick J. McDonnell

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; everify; illegals; immigration; sobstory
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To: jeannineinsd
The government took no action against the workers. But Overhill did: All of the employees were fired May 31.

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.

21 posted on 06/12/2009 1:42:51 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: jeannineinsd

As there appears to be no penalty for using a false SSN, why should any of us provide our valid ones?


22 posted on 06/12/2009 1:44:41 PM PDT by SampleMan (Socialism enslaves you & kills your soul.)
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To: SampleMan

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.


23 posted on 06/12/2009 1:48:43 PM PDT by Dan(9698)
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To: jeannineinsd

How come when white guys get terminated they are not “devastated”?


24 posted on 06/12/2009 1:50:34 PM PDT by caver (Obama's first goals: allow more killing of innocents and allow the killers of innocents to go free.)
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To: jeannineinsd
I got a call from a magazine I write for. They had gotten a call from the IRS. Seems I had an invalid SSN on my 1099 form (two digits were transposed).

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.

25 posted on 06/12/2009 1:50:45 PM PDT by No Truce With Kings (The opinions expressed are mine! Mine! MINE! All Mine!)
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To: jeannineinsd

Wahhhhhhhh.... wahaaaaaaaa... wahhhhhhhhh. What don’t they, and the stinkin’ union, understand about the word “illegal”?

+1 to Overhill.


26 posted on 06/12/2009 1:51:01 PM PDT by ataDude (Its like 1933, mixed with the Carter 70s, plus the books 1984 and Animal Farm, all at the same time.)
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To: dalereed
I want to know why the IRS isn’t enforcing the law that went into effect in the 70s where if there was a discrepancy in a Social Security number they notified the employer and the employer had 30 days to correct the discrepancy by either firing the employee or correcting a clerical error or there was a $40 fine?

Obviously you didn't read the story. Each employee had 30 days to correct his/her SSN with the company. They didn't, they got the boot. Boo Hoo.
27 posted on 06/12/2009 1:56:07 PM PDT by Cheburashka ("Ah, Roulette. My favorite game, after Call of Duty.")
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To: RKV

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...


28 posted on 06/12/2009 1:57:10 PM PDT by Cobra Scott
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To: tacticalogic
What did the expect the company to do, keep the employees and pay the IRS fines until the company went broke and put everyone out of a job?

Yes.
29 posted on 06/12/2009 2:02:16 PM PDT by Cheburashka ("Ah, Roulette. My favorite game, after Call of Duty.")
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To: Cheburashka

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!


30 posted on 06/12/2009 2:03:33 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: dalereed

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.


31 posted on 06/12/2009 2:05:40 PM PDT by dalereed
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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.


32 posted on 06/12/2009 2:06:50 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama post 09/11. The U.S. is sorry, we are a Muslim nation, and we surrender.)
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To: ikka

“...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.


33 posted on 06/12/2009 2:06:55 PM PDT by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: dalereed

I agree Dale.


34 posted on 06/12/2009 2:08:21 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama post 09/11. The U.S. is sorry, we are a Muslim nation, and we surrender.)
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To: dalereed
From the story:

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.

35 posted on 06/12/2009 2:11:37 PM PDT by Cheburashka ("Ah, Roulette. My favorite game, after Call of Duty.")
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To: Cheburashka

Apparently you don’t know or understand the law, idiot!


36 posted on 06/12/2009 2:15:16 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: jeannineinsd

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?


37 posted on 06/12/2009 2:27:12 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama post 09/11. The U.S. is sorry, we are a Muslim nation, and we surrender.)
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To: ikka

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.


38 posted on 06/12/2009 2:32:12 PM PDT by thile44 (Simplicity is too complex.)
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To: Wage Slave

“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.


39 posted on 06/12/2009 2:35:56 PM PDT by Habibi ("We gladly feast on those who would subdue us". Not just pretty words........)
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To: jeannineinsd

wow.....almost every single person mentioned or quoted in the article should either be in jail or tarred and feathered.


40 posted on 06/12/2009 2:36:11 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (ALSO SPRACH ZEROTHUSTRA)
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