The settlement is the first of its kind since agency officials pledged to give undocumented workers more protections against workplace abuses. Local employment lawyers believe the settlement will embolden steps to protect such workers nationwide while forcing employers to exert more care in who they hire. The hotel, apparently with a straight face, denied this and maintained the settlement was reached because of fears that litigation would be costly and drag on for years. Evertina said she has no doubts about the hotel's whistle-blowing motives. They didn't even want to talk to us.
Labour laws prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who attempt to unionise.
But undocumented workers, until this week, were not included. The hotel claims that they were tipped to the undocumented workers and that the timing was merely a coincidence. The Albino sisters come from a family of 15 brothers and sisters who live on a small farm in Guerrero, an impoverished state in Mexico. They said they first worked at a unionised hotel in downtown Minneapolis, where they got breaks and received an eight-hour daily shift for cleaning an average of 16 rooms each. All except Rosa returned to Mexico, but they returned about two years ago as conditions there worsened.