Markeshia Ricks photo
Cho, left, with attorney Leff.
Alejandro Rodriguez, having been stiffed by his boss, asked a judge not to let him off the hook. Some of his coworkers, concerned their market might close, argued for leniency.
Judge Maureen Keegan heard both arguments from immigrant employees of Gourmet Heaven at a hearing Monday afternoon in state Superior Court on Elm Street.
Keegan is set to decide whether to approve Gourmet Heaven owner Chung Cho’s application for accelerated rehabilitation. If she does approve it, Cho would receive probation and face no jail time. Keegan continued a hearing on Cho’s application to allow time to hear from Cho’s current and former employers about their work conditions under a man that the Department of Labor said stole thousands of wages from them, and continued to do so even after he was told that he was violating the law.
Among those she heard from was Rodriguez, who has worked for Gourmet Heaven owner Chung Cho for 12 years, but since he signed documents swearing to the Department of Labor that he routinely worked as much as 72 hours a week and was paid as little as $240, things have not been the same.
“I’ve lost hours,” he told New Haven District Superior Court Judge Maureen Keegan, during a hearing Monday afternoon.
“They are now only offering 40 hours,” Rodriguez said. “There has been retaliation over the last few weeks. They yell at me. They give me things I can’t do. They give me less time to work.”
Former deli employees Misael Morales and Ulber Morales both told Keegan that they found themselves without jobs for telling the Department of Labor that they were underpaid.
“For telling the truth at the Department of Labor I was fired,” Ulber Morales said. “They no longer wanted my services. I was unemployed for a month. The last check — they never paid us.”
But Gourmet Heaven Assistant Manager Margarito Zamora told Keegan no employee has been retaliated against, or fired for cooperation with the Department of Labor. Hours have been cut because business is slow.
“When we’re busy, everybody gets overtime,” he said. “When we’re not busy, we don’t. We thank the Department of Labor for the work they’ve done.”
Zamora said Cho treats everyone equally.
Zamora wasn’t the only one who had something good to say about Cho, while he silently looked on. He did not speak in court Monday.
There was Tania Diales, a mother of two young children she had during the two and a half years she worked at Gourmet Heaven.
“He’s just amazing,” Diales said. “When he comes in he says good morning. While I was pregnant he was always asking me, ‘Are you hungry? You can eat whenever you want.’”
She’s on maternity leave and has hopes of returning to Cho’s employ. There also was Pedro Gonzalez who has worked for Cho for 16 years and “never seen any mistreatment of workers.”
“I feel pleasant, I feel protected,” Gonzalez said of working for Cho. “Through the 16 years I’ve been sick and he’s helped me. The times that he’s seen me he says, ‘Pedro, how are you doing?’ because he knows I’ve been sick. At work I feel safe and protected. We eat there.”
And on it went.
A dozen current Gourmet workers talked to the judge about how Cho had given them rent free places to live; how Cho footed the bill for employee appreciation meals; and how flexible he was with time off during pregnancies. Most noticeably they talked about their concern that Gourmet Heaven would close and they too would lose their jobs.
The case against Cho followed organizing by local immigrants’ rights groups and became a symbolic case cited by officials of a campaign against wage theft. Yale University Properties, Cho’s landlord, has since decided not to renew his lease when it expires next June 30.
Providence, R.I., Gourmet Heaven Manager Mohamed Masaud told Keegan that Cho doesn’t support just his employees — he supports all of their families.
“If you close Gourmet Heaven, we’ll all be out in the street,” he said.
Cho’s attorney David Leff said the line to sing his client’s praises could have been out the door. He reminded Keegan that Cho has no criminal record and has cooperated with every step of Department of Labor’s investigation.
“Seriousness is also measured by your response to it,” Leff said. “Mr. Cho has said, ‘Tell me what need to do? How do I do this right?’”
Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Denison (pictured) and the legal-aid attorney representing current and former Gourmet Heaven employees, James Bhandary-Alexander, argued that Cho’s application doesn’t hinge on how good of a guy his employees think he is, but whether or not he committed a crime for which he should stand trial and face possible jail time.
Should Cho’s case go to trial he could face up to 145 years in prison for the multitude of crimes for which he is accused including a felony larceny charge.
“If that’s not serious, what is serious?,” Bhandary-Alexander said.
Denison further argued that what Cho is accused of is nothing short of a human rights violations. He pointed out that Cho’s employees — former and current, proponents and opponents — are all racial minorities.
“Not one is what you would consider an average white guy,” Denison said. “They are the people who are traditionally downtrodden because of their status, because of their race, because of who they are. That makes this case serious.”
Denison said if the case does not go to trial it sends the message that employers can get away with wage theft and if they are caught, they won’t go to jail.