As you may know, the Typhoon Thai restaurant chain has been beset by delinquent taxes and labor problems for years. They have been sued by employees so many times, I have to wonder why they are such a magnate, even though they don’t always lose the cases. There have been so many suits at this point, it is getting hard to keep up. Most recently,
In September 2010, the restaurant was the subject of a state civil rights complaint, accusing them of “discriminating against Thai cooks by paying them less, denying them raises, providing them less vacation time and requiring them to work longer hours than U.S.-born workers. …He also accused Typhoon of forcing chefs to sign labor agreements that negated their civil rights — and then retaliating and harassing two chefs when they refused to sign the pacts.”
January 2011, a lien was placed against the chain for $1.5 million for unpaid state and Federal taxes.
February of 2011, their NW Everett street location was seized by the landlord for $27,217.00 in unpaid rent, though they were able to reopen within 24 hours.
March 2011, Typhoon! vendors filed a series of lawsuits in Multnomah County Circuit Court for alleged unpaid produce bills.
July 2011, A federal arbitration panel this week awarded a former Typhoon chef $268,000, ruling the Tigard-based restaurant chain discriminated based on the chef’s Thai origin and workers compensation claim and owed her unpaid overtime.
The three-person panel in Portland also suggested the restaurant chain was abusing a U.S. State Department treaty program which the chain has used for more than a decade to recruit dozens of chefs from Thailand.
Now, according to this story in Willamette week, they have refused to appear at a Bureau of Labor and Industries hearing on June 24th, and are insisting a civil court trial sort out their allegations of civil-rights abuse and wage-and-hour violations. (For some reason WW’s linkbacks are not working properly)
As I said, you just have to wonder what they are thinking.
FD, well if you have ever had the (mis)fortune of sitting at a BOLI hearing, you would understand why they want an actual court to hear their case. BOLI is probably in the top 3 worst run state agencies, which is impressive given that every state agency is poorly run! DMV, OLCC, BOLI, in that order. I’d rather have a Lye enema than deal with either three…..
Allow me to recount a true story that happened to yours truly.
I went to the DMV a while ago, took a number, and I waited for about 9 minutes on a busy Saturday morning. The lobby was clean and bustling, but was relatively quiet, outside of a teenager talking excitedly and loudly on her cell phone to her friend about her upcoming driving exam. The bureaucrats behind the desk informed me that I couldn’t renew my expired license because I needed a copy of my birth certificate or passport. I assume this is because Oregon passed a new law since I last renewed my license because they were afraid brown people might be able to drive legally.
Anyhow, they gave me 60 days to come back and show proof of my existence. A month later, I went to the government-run post office and was able to fill out a passport renewal application, pay $150, and get my photo taken, all in the matter of 15 minutes. 3 weeks later, I received a US passport in the mail that’s good for 10 years.
At that point I returned to the DMV, grabbed another number, waited for about 8 minutes, and then showed them my passport, and paid $40. I was then put into another queue–where I waited 4 minutes–in order to get my photo taken for my new license. It came in the mail in a week and will expire in the year 2018.
I don’t know how Americans can continue to exist under such horriblely oppressive socialism.
Ummmm…so the DMV is bureaucratic and apparently, it’s a bit easier to renew a passport than a license (FYI, always been that way in many, many states)–and this has what to do with the Typhoon owners being complete deadbeats?
BTW, Socialism is a form of economy—it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with how the DMV is run, in this country or any other. And yeah, everyone has to wait in line sometimes. Again, it’s called life and reality.
The mouthpiece you left home that tastes of your own blood gets it, why can’t you?
Oh! You do, it’s called life and reality.
Um whaaa????
Pollo, thank you for highlighting my point.
also, your preoccupation with race/class not withstanding, I am having a hard time seeing why you think your experience was a good one? Is it because you have a fascination with getting fleeced?
Now attempting to keep this somewhat on track, does anyone here actually think that the Typhoon situation is one sided? That the owners are murderous thugs and the works/BOLI are fighting the righteous fight? As far as my experience with that agency goes, I am fairly confident that BOLI got it’s feathers ruffled early on and since has had a giant hard on for the owners or someone at Typhoon. Remember that cop in your hometown that pulled you over way too often for the tiniest, inconsequential infraction? That is how BOLI runs.
Except it isn’t just BOLI, by ANY stretch of the imagination—it’s also the IRS, the other federal agencies and two private businesses (their landlord and Sysco)—and supposedly plenty of small vendors, as well (who really NEED to be paid quickly). That’s quite a varied list.
As for BOLI having a vendetta. I’ve dealt with BOLI as both a defending employer and a complaining employee. They are FAR more supportive (to the point of being ethically/legally questionable) of employers than employees. If anything, they will seek to do everything they can for you to NOT puruse a complaint. Because it’s more work for them.
Most hospitality companies I’ve worked for (again, in a variety of spots) bend and break rules all the time. You have to be seriously crooked to get caught or even raise suspicion. Dirty, dirty, dirty.
“You think your experience was a good one? Is it because you have a fascination with getting fleeced?”
It was easier than getting a table at Le Pigeon.
And the only part that even made it even a minor pain was because of onerous laws spearheaded by racist xenophobes. But hey, it forced me to renew my passport so I can now travel again.
For whatever reason, they truly think they are above the law and fully entitled to behave this way. I don’t wonder why they’re such a magnet for lawsuits, they’re complete crooks—and arrogant enough to think the law simply doesn’t apply to them.
Since this thread has strayed so far, I’ll just jump in with my .02.
Many years ago, my employer sent me to represent them at all BOLI hearing. I found them to be intimidating, but generally fair – I don’t think we ever lost a case. It was unemployment hearings that drove me crazy. We could have 15 pages of documentation of behaviors and warnings, and would still lose if any loophole could be found that gave them a reason to side with the employee. What? “Your girlfriend wrecked your car and the bus schedule didn’t match your schedule? The employer should have worked with you to adjust your schedule or have someone pick you up in the morning.”
Ugh.