Second discrimination suit filed against Henningsen Foods
Monday, May 25, 2009 - 12:58 am
A second former employee of Henningsen Foods Inc. has filed a lawsuit claiming that illegal immigrants were favored over other workers at the egg processing plant. Meanwhile, the company says the allegations already have been dismissed by the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission.Diane Morbach, 57 of Bellwood, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. Federal District Court according to documents provided by her attorney Paul Boross of Lincoln. Boross did not provide additional comment on the case.
Morbach alleges that Henningsen Foods and its owner Q.P. Corp, discriminated against her by illegally terminating her job in September 2007.
The company, she alleges, let her go for “the convenience of the company.”
She alleges that the company knowingly employed illegal immigrants in its plant and that the number of Caucasian workers had diminished over the four years prior to her firing in 2007.
Morbach alleges that the company knowingly kept illegal immigrants employed after it was discovered that the workers used altered identifications
Contacted on Friday, Henningsen Vice President Gary Lorimor said that he could not comment on the current case, but that Morbach’s claims had already been investigated by the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission with no finding that Morbach was mistreated.
“On April 1 they officially closed the charge, finding evidence insufficient to support the allegations of discrimination,” Lorimor said.
Lorimor said the company uses E-Verify, a process by which candidates for employment are screened through the Social Security Administration.
“Every employee we hire is reviewed,” he said. “And they (SSA) report back to us. We’ve had that in place for years.”
In January, Amy Schrader of Ulysses sued the company, saying she was illegally fired in 2007. The company, she alleges, said she missed too much work. She alleged that the company was looking to cut costs and didn’t want to pay her health benefits.
Lorimor said that Schrader’s case also was reviewed and dismissed by the NEOC.
Schrader and Morbach both contend that the company recruited and employed Hispanic workers that were not eligible to work, and that the company knew the workers were illegal immigrants. Both cases are pending.
For more on this story, see the May 28 edition of The Banner-Press.
