Stand with Asian Americans’ Post

Seven San Francisco Subway franchises are accused of exploiting immigrant labor, low pay and poor working conditions. When Khadengra Subedi, a Nepalese father of two, immigrated to the United States, he had no knowledge of the workplace rights the laws afforded him. He just knew he had to grab the first job given to him so can get on his feet and survive. “I am first time in the U.S. … I did not know about the minimum wage, overtime, sick pay. … I came here with my family. I must work any job.” Khadengra says nine months in he never received a pay stub, only $14 an hour in cash, well below the City’s $18.67 an hour minimum and in some months, he didn’t get paid at all. But he endured, despite struggling to pay his bills on time and needing to provide for his children, running the restaurant largely on his own for 10-hour days, often unable to take breaks to use the bathroom. The franchise he worked for is among seven owned by Christopher Van Buren and Marta Gebreslasie that are accused of illegal labor practices. Former employees have also named Shila Acharya Thapa, a manager whose hiring practices seemed to target newly arrived immigrants with limited English-speaking abilities. “The manager wants to hire the maximum Nepalese people and Burma people … They do not understand the English language, the minimum wage or the overtime, sick time like me.” Khadengra says Thapa instructed him to lie and tell people he earned minimum if asked about his earnings. Another employee, Monica Ramirez, said she caught Thapa on multiple occasions editing her time sheet to show she clocked out earlier than she had. San Francisco-based worker center Trabajadores Unidos and nonprofit Legal Aid at Work filed a joint complaint with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, which has been investigating the accusations. The franchise owners are accused of violating wage laws on three counts: paying less than the state wage of $16 and hour, less than the San Francisco minimum and less than the new state fast food worker minimum of $20 an hour. So far ten of the estimated 25 affected employees have come forward. Subway has been accused on multiple counts of patterns of abuse, affecting both immigrant employees and immigrant owners, who comprise 30 to 50 percent of franchise owners across 20,605 franchises. A 2021 lawsuit accused the chain of preying on Asian immigrants, encouraging them to open franchise and then targeting them with unnecessary fees, forcing their business to go under. #WorkplaceJustice #SpeakUp #NeverSilent #NotYourModelMinority Read more: https://ow.ly/T2et50Syj8u Source: NBC News

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