wsmv.com
NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- Some midstate restaurant employees said they have been forced to hire or take part in hiring illegal immigrants.
A previous I-Team investigation found many employers who seemed willing to hire undocumented workers and coached them to get fake papers.
Elhadji Ndiaye said his career as a manager at a Hometown Buffet in Madison came to a close when he started complaining.
He said he talked openly about his discomfort at hiring illegal immigrants.
“I loved working there,” he said.
Norma Harris said she just quit her server job there because she was fed up with what she called discrimination against hiring legal U.S. residents.
“I don't think it's fair. I don't think it's fair at all,” she said.
Harris, Ndaiye and two current workers at the Hometown Buffet all contacted the I-Team after seeing the I-Team’s undercover investigation into businesses that hired the I-Team’s producer who posed as an undocumented worker.
The four workers all claim general manager Chris Butler knowingly hires illegal immigrants and helps them keep the jobs by putting fake names on their name tags.
“These people here have been here a couple years. How can they have the same faces but different names?" Harris said.
Ndiaye documented his complaints in letters to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and to the corporate owners of Hometown Buffet.
He wrote that Butler "will continue to hire illegal aliens and earn him the name of coyote."
Coyote is a term used to describe someone who helps illegal immigrants cross the border.
Ndiaye said he was told the illegal workers were more dependable.
“I (could) care less that there are some undocumented workers here. My fight is that people born in this country looking for a job cannot have a job,” he said.
Butler said he can't discuss the accusations until he gets approval from his corporate superiors.
"We verify everyone's Social Security number with the Social Security office before they're hired. We run it through the Social Security office before they're allowed to work,” Butler said.
Ndiaye said for him, it’s personal. He said he is a legal immigrant being instructed to hire illegal immigrants.
"You feel bad, but there's nothing you can do,” he said.
Wednesday afternoon, the corporate owners of Hometown Buffet issued a statement.
"Hometown Buffet maintains rigorous standards to assure that only qualified and legally eligible candidates are offered employment. The procedures used to confirm employment eligibility significantly exceed those required by law,” said executive vice president and general counsel and secretary Tom Mitchell.
Posted by tyne at May 24, 2007