Guest Workers Charge Racial Exploitation, File Federal Suit Against Luxury Hotel Chain in New Orleans

U.S. Newswire › August 16, 2006

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NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Latin American workers brought a federal lawsuit today against one of New Orleans' wealthiest hotel owners, who lured them through false promises and charged them thousands of dollars in fees to fill jobs held by New Orleanians prior to Hurricane Katrina.

Eighty-two guest workers allege that Decatur Hotels, LLC and its president, F. Patrick Quinn III, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when the company failed to reimburse them for the exorbitant fees paid to aggressive labor recruiters working as agents of the hotel chain. Decatur owns about a dozen luxury hotels in New Orleans and is one of the largest locally owned hotel chains in Louisiana.

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Guest Workers Charge Racial Exploitation, File Federal Suit Against Luxury Hotel Chain in New Orleans

To pay labor recruiters in their home countries, workers from Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic plunged their families into debt. Recruiters charged between $3,500 and $5,000 to...

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