Earlier this year a bakery in Chicago lost 800 of its workers after an immigration raid revealed they were illegal immigrants.
The staffing agency was not named in any of the reports.
The chief executive officer of the company, Kevin Toland, said on a call with analysts that it is struggling to get back on track.
“It’s proceeding very, very slowly because it’s like having a brand new factory and a brand new workforce,” Toland said. “That’s presenting a lot of challenges, as you can imagine.”
According to Bloomberg, the raid on Cloverhill is one of the largest U.S. employment incidents reported by a European company so far.
Aryzta AG said it is striving to replace its staff and that it is facing mounting pressure to raise wages for its employees.
Toland said that the situation caused a 7 percent decline in Aryzta’s sales from North America, just in the past three months through October, Bloomberg reported. The CEO also said increased employment costs are affecting retailers and restaurants nationwide, adding that it will soon affect consumer prices as well.
Aryzta was not able to vet its workers to see if they had the necessary documents because the employees were brought in by an outside staffing agency, according to interim Chief Financial Officer David Wilkinson.
Wilkinson said the company’s board did not know how much the extent of the immigration problem existed in the business.
Friends Read Free