ELIZABETH, NJ - An Elizabeth car wash has settled a lawsuit and will pay 24 immigrant workers their owed unpaid wages. The settlement will force the car wash to pay a total of one million dollars divided among the workers in the suit.
Caribbean Car Wash, located on Elizabeth Avenue, will owe each of the workers between $40,000 and $50,000, following the two-and-a-half-year legal battle, according to Steve Arenson of Arenson, Dittmar & Karban, the attorney representing the car wash workers.
The represented workers of the car wash typically worked 10-plus-hour days, seven days a week for around five dollars an hour, less than minimum wage in New Jersey at the time, Arenson said. These workers also did not receive overtime pay for their work over 40 hours, which is required by law.
Arenson said that the owners of Caribbean Car Wash were a family of immigrants who knew how to take advantage of other immigrant workers.
“Most of these workers were immigrants that mainly spoke Spanish. Many of them are undocumented,” Arenson said. “The owners themselves, in this case, are a Cuban family and immigrants themselves. They have a sense of where these workers come from, where in the workers’ native countries, there's very little pay. The workers are of the attitude that if they can get $300 or $400 cash a week, that's great for them. Meanwhile, they're working 70 or 80 hours and it's total exploitation.”
In August 2019, shortly before the case was filed, New Jersey amended its...
Dr. Michael Harrington and his company, Genoverde Bioscience, Inc., have agreed to a $152,500 settlement to resolve allegations of making false and duplicative expense claims involving National Sci...