<a href="http://educationinthestreets.blogspot.com">Education In The Streets</a>

Saturday, November 08, 2003

The New York Times reports on undocumented Czech Walmart workers.

The use of illegal workers appeared to benefit Wal-Mart, its shareholders and managers by minimizing the company's costs, and it benefited consumers by helping hold down Wal-Mart's prices. Cleaning contractors profited, and thousands of foreign workers were able to earn more than they could back home.

But the system also had its costs janitors said they were forced to work seven days a week, were not paid overtime and often endured harsh conditions. Foreigners got jobs that Americans might have wanted. And taxpayers sometimes ended up paying for the illegal workers' emergency health care or their children's education in American schools.

"We Czechs are willing to sacrifice and work hard, but we definitely weren't earning enough money," said Pavel, 33, in a telephone interview from the Czech Embassy before he was deported last Friday. He said he received $380 in cash for his 56-hour workweeks. That came to $6.79 an hour, and he did not receive time-and-a-half for overtime.

In interviews, federal law enforcement officials, cleaning contractors, industry experts and seven illegal immigrant cleaners at Wal-Mart, including Pavel, said subcontracting allowed Wal-Mart to benefit while enabling it to deny responsibility.

Wal-Mart officials said it made sense to contract out the cleaning work because that enabled store managers to concentrate on what they do best, operating stores that provide low-cost merchandise. Wal-Mart uses about 100 contractors to clean nearly 1,000 of its stores.

¶ 3:01 PM

Smash Yale-[ comments.]

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