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| McTeague Higbee - Great Wall |
 McTeague Higbee's Jeffrey Young Representing Maine Clients Seeing Back PayGroup sues Great Wall restaurant for wages
Nine former employees, all Chinese immigrants, say they're owed at least $500,000 in back pay.
By DENNIS HOEY, Staff Writer September 1, 2009
The Super Great Wall Buffet restaurant in South Portland is being sued by a group of former workers who claim they were underpaid, forced to work long hours and housed in "squalid" conditions by their employers. The nine ex-employees, all Chinese immigrants, say they were recruited to work at the restaurant near the Maine Mall by employment agencies in New York City over a period of five years. Their Topsham-based attorney, Jeffrey Neil Young, claims that the workers are owed at least a half-million dollars in back wages, and that the restaurant's owners could be responsible for more than $2.5 million in state penalties for failing to give workers 30-minute breaks for every six hours worked. He said a typical shift at the restaurant was as long as 13 hours, and that employees worked six days a week, were paid less than minimum wage and were not paid overtime wages. "This is a case of discrimination. These workers were being exploited because of their limited ability to speak and read English," Young said in a telephone interview. Young filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Portland, naming as defendants Ren Qi Chen, Siow Wooi Chang and their son, Xue Wen Chen. (Read the entire article)
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