CrimeWatch
Virtual slavery for Indians in US
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted online: Friday, May 26, 2006 at 1050 hours IST


TULSA (OKLAHOMA), MAY 26: A US federal judge awarded a group of 52 Indian men more than $1.2 million (Euro

940,000) after finding an oil equipment manufacturer guilty of fraud, false imprisonment and civil rights violations.

Federal judge Clair V Egan's ruling described an environment of threats and intimidation, daily harassment and open hostility

from management at the John Pickle Co.


"Defendants recruited Indian workers in India, brought them to the United States, housed and fed them separately from the

non-Indian JPC employees, identified them as Indians and made numerous discriminatory comments about their ancestry,

ethnic background, culture, and country," Egan wrote.

The verdict, first reported by the Tulsa World, came more than four years after the workers left the west Tulsa factory.

They told of being forced to work long hours for only a few dollars per day. The men accused the company of making them

live in a dormitory on the factory grounds and keeping them from leaving the factory grounds even when off-duty.

If divided equally, each worker might receive more than $20,000 (Euro 15,680). Federal attorneys, who joined the lawsuit

on the side of the workers, had asked the judge for $5.5 million (euro4.3 million) in back wages and damages.


Lead plaintiffs' attorney Ken Felty said while his clients did not get that amount, the judgment still ranks as the first

million-dollar verdict in a case of this kind.

"This case wasn't about the money," Felty said. "It was about making sure that something like this doesn't happen again, that

more workers aren't exploited and more people are mistreated."

John Pickle Co ceased operations shortly after the Indian employees left the company and filed the lawsuit.

After the workers left and throughout the trial, the company maintained its innocence.

The men, 52 in all, received help from members of a nearby Pentecostal church, and have since scattered across the US,

including Chicago, Philadelphia, Colorado, Lousiana and Texas.

The single largest group, 15 to 20 of the plaintiffs, works for ConocoPhillips in Ponca City, Oklahoma and some remain in

Tulsa.