Today, a break from talking about the CDC and masks (but more tomorrow) to bring you a truly awful nominee for the Worst Employer of 2021.
For the past two years, a human trafficker or enslaver hoisted the "Worst Employer" trophy at year's end. Will 2021 bring us a threepeat?
NBC News reports on a strong contender:
The FBI was at a massive Hindu temple in New Jersey on Tuesday that has been accused in a lawsuit of luring Indian men from marginalized communities to the U.S. and forcing them to work nearly 90 hours a week for around $1 an hour.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, accuses Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a Hindu sect known as BAPS, and its leaders of "shocking violations," including forced labor, trafficking, and wage theft.…The organization, related entities, and several people are accused of recruiting the men to come to New Jersey and help build the temple for around 87 hours a week for $450 a month, or around $1.20 an hour. The suit says the defendants lured low-caste men and members of other marginalized communities to work at the temple, which is still under construction.
Passports were confiscated, and workers were confined to the guarded compound, the suit alleges.
If you human traffic marginalized people to use as forced labor to build your compound and pay them a mere ten cents on the minimum-wage dollar, you might be the worst employer of 2021.