EEOC collects $4.8M for pineapple workers in discrimination case
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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday it has collected $4.8 million to be distributed to 54 Thai workers to satisfy a judgment in a national origin and race discrimination case filed against a Hawaiian pineapple company.
The agency said in a statement that it had initially filed suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against Makawao, Hawaii-based Maui Pineapple Ltd. and Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Inc., a labor contractor, among other defendants in U.S. District Court in Honolulu in EEOC v. Global Horizons, Inc. et al.
The EEOC said that in 2015, the court entered a default judgment against Maui Pineapple and Global Horizons after finding them liable for national origin and race discrimination and awarding the workers more than $8.1 million.
The agency said it recovered $4.8 million from Maui Pineapple after working in cooperation with the U.S. Dept. of Justice and the Treasury Department.
According to the judgment, some of the Thai workers were subjected to physical violence such as being slapped on the head, thrown against the wall, grabbed and punched in the face, the EEOC said in its statement.
They were also subjected to constant threats of deportation and arrest; forced to live in substandard housing infested with rats, scorpions and bugs; and received inadequate food, the EEOC said.
Defense attorneys in the case could not be reached.
