I read with utter disgust and frustration Daily News Staff Writer, Brian Kates’, article titled “Ripoff Firm Got Slap On Wrist, Workers say”. It is worth a summary review for those of your readers who may have missed it.

Mr. Kates reported that “A Labor contractor for swank country clubs who ripped off immigrant workers’ wages and forced them to live in squalid houses will still be allowed to work in New York.”

Additionally, “…a settlement worked out with state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, [and] the Miami-based contractor, Star One Staffing, agreed to pay $113,000 to 70 Filipino workers, all here legally with guest-worker visas.”

According to Kates, Cuomo found that:

Some of the exploited workers were reportedly “dismayed” that the amount in the deal worked out last week included no penalties and allows Star One to continue working in New York with monitoring.

The workers have a justifiable right to balk at the settlement. Indeed, the deficient settlement should provoke a sense of outrage in every worker in this country who toils to earn a paycheck; whether or not it will provoke such a reaction is yet to be seen.

Still, the instant facts and circumstances regarding the settlement between NYS Attorney General, Cuomo, and Star One Staffing, gives rise to several other compelling questions that cry out for answers.

First, are our NY State labor laws so lame as to preclude the assessment of treble or punitive damages that would serve to deter the abhorrent conduct of companies like Star One Staffing? The answer to that appears to be yes, given the grossly limited and deficient terms of the Cuomo settlement.

Secondly, to what extent did the conduct of Star One Staffing rise to the level of criminal conduct? We observe for example, that Star One consciously and deliberately stole from the employees it brokered-out to work at Long Island’s posh country clubs. Is it possible that such purposeful stealing from workers falls outside the realm of criminal activity? And further, that our labor statutes actually provide a safe harbor from prosecution for employers and labor sharks such as Star One who engage in such criminal activity? Apparently the answers are yes, yes and yes again. And as long as the answers remain yes, employers will continue to abuse and exploit workers with impunity, particularly those immigrant workers who are especially vulnerable.

The measure of a civilized society can be gauged in large part based on the level/degree of punishment it applies to those engaged in socially reprehensible conduct. Until such time as the theft of earned wages is considered socially reprehensible conduct and criminalized, employers will continue to maintain a catch-me-if-you-can attitude in these wage and hour violations; violations that have proliferated exponentially in recent years.

However, quite apart from Star One’s “routine” wage and hour violations that appear to have formed the underlying basis of the settlement agreement with Cuomo and escaped criminal prosecution -- there are certain elements of Cuomo’s investigation that, on their face, demand a federal review by the US Attorney’s office.

Clearly, these 70 workers were fraudulently lured across state lines from Miami to New York where they were, in effect, held hostage in New York by virtue of Star One’s seizure of their work visas from the workers’ passports. Certainly, holding someone captive against their will and exploiting them in this fashion is arguably akin to kidnapping, which is still considered a punishable criminal act in the US.

I would urge each of your many readers who might agree with this construction to join me in initiating an investigation by the US Attorney into this alleged criminal conduct by the labor broker, Star One Staffing.

The exploitation of workers is not a new phenomenon either in the US or globally. Hopefully each of us can do our own small part in changing this situation here at home in our “civilized” nation -- where we must insist that that the punishment fit the crime.

Paul Poulos