Olive Garden confirmed today that it has fired a number of its employees after they were unable to provide proof of their legal working status. A report today in Univision provides details of the incident. "If the individuals are not able to prove that they can legally work in the country, the law requires that they be dismissed," said spokesperson Tara Gray. "Unfortunately, a few people on the IRS list informed us that they could not produce the proper documentation."
The Olive Garden spokesperson is referring to a list of discrepancies detected by the IRS regarding the Social Security Numbers of several employees. When several workers were not able to justify the error in the system, the company had to let them go. Olive Garden has not revealed how many workers lost their positions. A number of workers have complained that the move was a strategy employed by the company to remove older workers without just cause.
One of the workers, Luis Ramos stated "I gave them 14 years of my life. If they had told me [that they needed documentation] after two or three years, i would understand. But 14 years?" said Ramos, 40, from Veracruz. However, the restaurant group denied knowing that their workers were undocumented migrants: "We take the verification of our employees very seriously," said Gray. "We never emply or keep an emplyee knowing he is undocumented. Not withstanding, we have supported and encouraged Congress to pass immigration reforms." Olive Garden employs over 96 thousand workers.
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