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![Himanshu Bhatia is the chief executive officer of Rose International, an information technology solutions company in Irvine. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register)]()
Himanshu Bhatia is the chief executive officer of Rose International, an information technology solutions company in Irvine. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register)
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![Rose International and IT Staffing is based in Chesterfield, Mo., but has an office on MacArthur Boulevard in Irvine, seen here. The company’s CEO was accused by the U.S. Labor Department of mistreating a domestic worker.]()
Rose International and IT Staffing is based in Chesterfield, Mo., but has an office on MacArthur Boulevard in Irvine, seen here. The company’s CEO was accused by the U.S. Labor Department of mistreating a domestic worker.
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![The CEO and founder of Rose International and and IT staffing was accused by the U.S. Labor Department of mistreating a domestic worker from India for about 18 months, paying her $400 a month for 15-hour days seven days a week.]()
The CEO and founder of Rose International and and IT staffing was accused by the U.S. Labor Department of mistreating a domestic worker from India for about 18 months, paying her $400 a month for 15-hour days seven days a week.
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The chief executive of an IT staffing company with an Irvine office will pay $135,000 to settle claims she mistreated a former domestic employee, forcing the woman to sleep with the family dogs and work 15½-hour days, seven days a week.
The U.S. Labor Department filed a complaint Aug. 22 against Himanshu Bhatia, the CEO of Rose International. The company’s headquarters is in Chesterfield, Mo., but it also has an office at 18952 MacArthur Blvd.
Bhatia allegedly made domestic employee Sheela Ningwal “work and live in servitude, without any understanding of her rights as an employee or ability to adequately enforce her rights, since Ms. Ningwal’s attempts to enforce her rights resulted not only in the loss of her employment, but of food and shelter,” according to the complaint.
Bhatia denied the claims but decided to settle the case to avoid a costly lawsuit, she said.
“Mrs. Bhatia firmly denied all of the claims made by the department regarding the employee, whom Mrs. Bhatia contended had been treated as a virtual member of the family. The lawsuit was resolved for less than the cost of continuing to litigate the case and will allow Mrs. Bhatia to focus on her business affairs,” the family said in a statement.
Bhatia will pay $54,348 in wages, and additional $54,348 in liquidated damages and $26,304 gross sum damages, the Labor Department stated.
Bhatia was accused of paying Ningwal, an Indian national, $400 a month plus food in exchange for housework performed seven days a week at Bhatia’s homes in San Juan Capistrano, Miami, Las Vegas and Long Beach, according to the DOL complaint.
She worked for Bhatia from July 2012 to December 2014.
The Labor Department said Ningwal was forced to sleep in the garage on a piece of carpet near Bhatia’s dogs while she was sick and was left without food if Bhatia left her home. Ningwal’s passport was also confiscated, according to the Department of Labor.
Bhatia fired Ningwal after she discovered the woman was researching labor laws on a computer. The worker also refused to sign a document written by Bhatia claiming a fair salary, according to the complaint.
Bhatia and her husband, Gulab, started Rose International in 1993 in their home near St. Louis.
Bhatia’s business specializes in consulting and IT services. Clients in 2011 included AT&T, Chevron, Verizon and the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, according to a Smart Business article.
Rose International had $318 million in revenue in 2015 and claimed 6,000 employees, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.