Guy Gecht: Slave Owner

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That’s right, slavery is still happening in America. Guy Gecht, the CEO of a company called Electronics for Imaging is a slaver. No, he is not keeping black people on a plantation. He is keeping brown people on a plantation. Specifically, he is keeping Hindus on his corporate plantation, at least according to this report.

Ever heard of Electronics for Imaging? We hadn’t either until this morning, but it’s apparently a multimillion dollar, multinational, public corporation based out of Fremont, California. And the United States Department of Labor just caught EFI red-handed in an investigation, which found that “about eight employees” were flown in from India to work 120-hour weeks for $1.21 per hour. EFI apparently thought it was okay to pay the employees the same wages they’d be paid in India (in Indian rupees). Here’s the unbelievably crazy sounding quote EFI gave to NBC’s Bay Area affiliate: “We unintentionally overlooked laws that require even foreign employees to be paid based on local US standards.”

Just so we’re clear: is there anyone reading this who doesn’t know that any person working in the United States is legally required to be compensated according to United States laws?

Alberto Raymond, an assistant district director with the US Department of Labor told NBC, “It is certainly outrageous and unacceptable for employers here in Silicon Valley to bring workers and pay less than the minimum wage.” And that applies to EFI especially, which posted just shy of $200 million in revenue in its last financial quarter. EFI is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange, and the company’s in the business of computer peripherals (mainly printer-based stuff).

The eight employees are being paid $40,000 in owed wages; they were reportedly installing computer systems at the company’s headquarters. EFI was charged $3,500 — yes, seriously — for being at fault.

Here’s the management team of the racist, slave-holding firm in question. Unsurprisingly, not a lot of flava there. If you’re going to chain brown people to their desks, forcing them to work for food, you’re probably not going to invite them into the boardroom. It should come as no surprise that Guy Gecht and his team are liberal democrats who give generously to the Liberal Democrats.

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Comments (Historical)

The comments below were originally posted to thezman.com.

7 Comments

Rod Arnst #3153 November 10, 2014 10:45 am 0
If you want to learn how to trade with real money, use the protected trades solution of CFD1000. You get back what you lost.
ErisGuy #3091 November 3, 2014 9:20 am 0
“That’s right, we slavery is still happening in America” How is this supposed to read?
james wilson #3084 November 1, 2014 12:48 pm 0
I question 120. That’s seven days seventeen hours a day. Which makes for very poor work product in my experience, and I have had that experience. Twelve and seven will get you 84. Twelve and six was the standard for textile workers in the first half of the nineteenth century. BTW, however the Indians worked, it wasn’t like slaves. Slaves worked at not working hard.
CaptDMO #3083 November 1, 2014 9:59 am 0
Heaven forfend that the label of “Inversion” befallthe industry so entrenched in full digitalization of every person 1. In the US (except those under the radar), and 2. The planet.“Marketing research”, for your convenience, might just EXPECT the “intrusions” from outside entities…for the proper transfer of electronic credit units of course.
tex #3079 October 31, 2014 3:18 pm 0
120hrs x 1.21/hr (the lowest incidentally) = $145/wk, or $629/mo which is higher than Mexico’s average and very much above India’s $295/mo.In general Asians work much longer hours than our 40/wk including the developed nations such as Japan & S Korea. In India most occupations work ~12hr/days or 60/wk; however, in the IT sector it is common to double that, esp in Delhi, Mumbai, & Bangalore.Nothing in the article mentioned what the Indian workers thought. Given a chance to be paid the same rate but get free travel & possibly room & board for a chance to visit USA, many, in fact, very many would probably jump at such chance & celebrate the opportunity. But the law is the law regardless of the desires of those affected, so these few get an unexpected windfall of several years pay, but at the expense of no such opportunities for other Indians. Oh how rich snobs like to impose on the very, very poor to snatch the few opportunities the do get.
gobsmacker #3076 October 31, 2014 1:24 pm 0
Of all the big shots in the board room beyond the CEO, I’d say the General Counsel and the Director of HR *MUST* have known what was going on and had both a professional as well as ethical obligation to blow the whistle on the company.
Ed #3074 October 31, 2014 12:09 pm 0
The likeliest part of the Constitution to be repealed in the near future is the 13th Amendment, not the 2nd, 5th, or 16th like people think. I can’t think of a scenario where its repealed outright, but a way will be found to make it dead letter or it will just be ignored.


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