Following Protest, N.Y. Labor Department Investigating Oorah

oorah protest tlsA week after a protest was held outside of the Oorah headquarters by laborers, the New York Department of Labor is investigating Oorah. The investigation stems from allegations that the company, or its contractors, did not pay workers at a camp Oorah owns in the Catskill Mountains near Jefferson, N.Y.

There are currently two active investigations stemming from a massive construction project at BoyZone, said Michelle Duffy, a New York Department of Labor spokeswoman. She would not comment about the active investigations further.

Oorah officials said they expect the labor department’s investigation will conclude soon, and they expect a favorable outcome for the company.

Clifford Meth, the Oorah spokesman, said the investigation possibly stems from the dismissal of two people, who complained to the New York state government.

“They complained to the Dept. of Labor and we replied by producing their paychecks,” Meth said in an e-mail. “Oorah believes it is just a matter of paperwork before these cases are closed.”

Last week, about 30 people protested outside Oorah’s gates. The protest was organized by New Labor, a worker’s advocacy group that has an office in Lakewood. The protest was part of a national day of action against wage theft. Read more in APP.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. While I have my own issues with Oorah, this case may be a non-starter. If the information is true and Oorah used a contractor, they would have no liability towards these workers. However, the fact that Mr. Meth said that Oorah produced paychecks seems to indicate that the workers were doing some direct work for the organization itself. It would seem that there is more to this than what meets the eye.

  2. Meth said two people (who had nothing to do with the people protesting) had complained to the DOL regarding *their* dismissal. Two different cases.

  3. Hello!
    Maybe oorah called up the contractors for copys of there pay stubs ever stop to think for a minute or would you rather first bash a first class organization (like you started off saying)

  4. People are jealous that Oorah has the greatest creativity that brings in a lot of $ for a chesed organization. There are 2 paths for organizations , either they drive people crazy with urgent appeals and close down eventually, beac nobody really cares about saving people neshomos, OR they run the chesed organization like busines with many marketing tactics and they stay alive and continue to help yidden, but somehow people are jealous that Oorah makes $ all you people should be ashamed of yourself

  5. To jealousy says
    I don’t understand your logic? Not paying workers for work they have performed is the issue here not jealousy ! It will come out one way or the other either they are guilty or not .Some of the statements in this article lead me to believe there is more to this than we are being told
    Lets eee what the NY Dept of labor comes up with befor anyone make a conclussion of what took place.

  6. I’m not ashamed to say that I find Oorah’s marketing distasteful.
    By the way, if you work for Oorah, your rude comment is almost as annoying as your catalogue and Lipathon.

Comments are closed.