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| Workers say that prestigious hotel lured them |
A lawsuit filed Tuesday (June 25) accuses the luxury Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City of exploiting workers from the Philippines.
Instead of a program that promised training and cultural immersion, the lawsuit accuses the hotel of forcing the Filipinos to work long hours doing menial jobs for low pay.
The four plaintiffs — Jann Descanzo, Veronica Bondoc, Glen Segundino and Marianne Ponio — studied tourism in the Philippines and came to learn about the hospitality industry in the United States. Attorneys for the plaintiffs suspect scores of others to join the class action lawsuit.
The hotel allegedly misused a type of visa similar to an internship program and instead treated participants like normal workers to avoid travel costs and other fees, according to the lawsuit filed by four workers represented by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice and other organizations.
"This conduct is a blatant, greed-driven and illegal perversion of this country's immigration laws," David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice, a Denver-based nonprofit law firm helping with the lawsuit, said in a news release.
Grand America officials didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The Grand America Hotel opened a year before the 2002 Winter Olympics and is considered one of the most lavish in Utah. Past presidents have stayed in the hotel that often hosts major political gatherings and important conferences.
The hotel is the flagship of the Grand Hotel and Resorts company, which also owns four Little America hotels in Western states.
The J-1 visa program is intended to give foreign workers who can be scholars, teachers, camp counselors and au pairs training and experience in those fields in the United States.
The lawsuit claims the hotel didn't make good on promises of providing supervised training about aspects of the American hospitality industry.
The workers say they were forced to put in 60-hour weeks. Their supervisors were accused of making racist comments and the Filipinos were threatened with deportation when they complained about the hotel not following the promise offered by the internship program.
The hotel allegedly misused a type of visa similar to an internship program and instead treated participants like normal workers to avoid travel costs and other fees, according to the lawsuit filed by four workers represented by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice and other organizations.
"This conduct is a blatant, greed-driven and illegal perversion of this country's immigration laws," David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice, a Denver-based nonprofit law firm helping with the lawsuit, said in a news release.
Grand America officials didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The Grand America Hotel opened a year before the 2002 Winter Olympics and is considered one of the most lavish in Utah. Past presidents have stayed in the hotel that often hosts major political gatherings and important conferences.
The hotel is the flagship of the Grand Hotel and Resorts company, which also owns four Little America hotels in Western states.
The J-1 visa program is intended to give foreign workers who can be scholars, teachers, camp counselors and au pairs training and experience in those fields in the United States.
The lawsuit claims the hotel didn't make good on promises of providing supervised training about aspects of the American hospitality industry.
The workers say they were forced to put in 60-hour weeks. Their supervisors were accused of making racist comments and the Filipinos were threatened with deportation when they complained about the hotel not following the promise offered by the internship program.
They each paid their travel costs and recruitment fees of more than $3,000 each, the lawsuit says.
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