Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon’s Labor Commissioner has filed a civil rights complaint against a popular chain of Thai restaurants. 

The owners of the six Typhoon! Asian Bistros are fending off charges that they discriminated against some of their chefs.

The complaint alleges that a Thai couple and several other cooks received lower wages, didn’t get full vacation time, and suffered humiliation in front of other staff, because of their nationality.

Now the state’s civil rights division will investigate, to see if the complaint has merit.

Typhoon’s COO Rick Anderson says the two chefs most prominent in the complaint left the company without airing any grievances.

Rick Anderson “We’d offered them new contracts, they refused to sign them. We didn’t know why they refused to sign them until several months after.”

Anderson says Typhoon’s owners are cooperating fully, and will show documentation of salary and vacation records to fight the claims.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries took complaints about Typhoon in 2003, 2004, and 2008. But all those were withdrawn, so that matters could be settled in court. They never resulted in state penalties.