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Alien worker told to leave, employer fined
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Posted on Mar 12 2005
An employer was fined for the improper termination of a nonresident worker late last year but the worker himself was ordered to leave the Commonwealth after it was found out that he had lied about his criminal record.
Based on an administrative order issued by the Labor Department on March 2, Rifu Apparel Corp. was ordered to pay a fine of $244 for terminating nonresident worker Terrence S. Jayaweera in a manner that did not meet legal requirements.
Labor, however, did not give Jayaweera given permission to transfer to another employer and said he should be repatriated back to his country before March 22, with Rifu Apparel providing the airfare to Jayaweera.
It was learned during the hearing that Jayaweera was verbally suspended on Nov. 11, 2002. Jayaweera filed a complaint with the Labor Department on June 12, 2003.
During the investigation, Labor discovered that the nonresident worker had been convicted in the Commonwealth Superior Court for assault and battery on Dec. 4, 1997. Jayaweera was also found to have been convicted of criminal mischief on April 20, 2000. He was found guilty of committing misdemeanors.
Nonresident workers are required to execute an affidavit as part of their contract submission. It asks them if he or she has ever been convicted of a crime.
Jayaweera said “no” in the applications he filed in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.
The administrative order said that, even if Jayaweera had been honest in answering the application documents, his application would still have been denied, thus the contract that Jayaweera had been holding on to is considered void.
