- Report: #1104577
Complaint Review: KEVIN HELWIG - Denali Alaska
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Author Not Confirmed
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KEVIN HELWIG
p.o. box 90 Denali, Alaska, USA
Phone:
(907) 683-2732
Web:
www.denalipark.com
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KEVIN HELWIG DENALI GIFT COMPANY STUART HAYES hiring undocumented workers, SCAM ARTISTS!!! Denali Alaska
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NEVER WORK FOR THIS COMPANY, THEY ARE A TOTAL SCAM!
STU HAYES IS THE WORST MANAGER EVER! He spies on the employees from a camera in his bedroom, which is right above the gift shop. He also calls the girls up to his room (which is totally unprofessional) and has each one of them do his dishes and his laundry all summer!
They have been treated by lawsuits many times from employees for failure to pay on time. Each year only 1 employee returns from this previous year, if that tells you anything! Also they tried bribing employees with free food in order to keep them quiet about non-payment. 95% of the employees each year are foreigners on J1 visas who dont speak a word of english.
Not only do they hire undocumented workers and pay them under the table, but they do not provide adequate housing for employees. There is only 1 working shower and 1 working bathroom for 25+ employees who are holed up in makeshift cabins (that Kevin built himself) There is no electricity in the cabins, and they are infested with roaches and rats every year. In addition, although they promise "trips" to Fairbanks, the only trips that are taken is once a month for 5 hours of shopping at Fred Meyer.
THEY ARE NOT LOCATED IN THE WILDERNESS, but next to a very busy gas station. DRUGS AND ALCOHOL USE ARE RAMPANT and employees get hired and fired based on their attractiveness to the sleezebag manager Stu. Between unwanted sexual advances and the discrimnation at this company, I would hope that anyone in their right mind would never work at a place like this.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
KH -owner
Denali park,Alaska,
Simply not true
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, February 04, 2014
Obviously this post is from a disgruntled employee using another's name or a competitor. We have had two Lucas B’s from Texas work for us in the past. One wrote a testimonial that is on our website. The other has worked for us 5 seasons and has been a friend of the family for 15 years.
Our manager has occasionally paid an employee that has volunteered to clean his apartment as I have done for my house at times as well. We have also paid employees to wash cars or trucks for us if they volunteered. No one is forced to do anything in our company.
In over 30 years the company has never been sued nor been as much as one day late on any payroll. Were this true as stated in the complaint the State Labor Board would have stopped it if not shut us down.
The summer of 2013 we had over ten prior year employees work all or part of the summer.
It is hard to answer the "bribing with free food" charge. If we were going to buy food to "bribe" an employee wouldn't simply paying them be easier? As I said we have never missed a payroll in 30 years!
We hire about 25 full time employees and have approximately 5-8 part time J-1 visa folks that usually work 2-3 days a week or more. The only requirement for these part-timers is that they have better than average English skills than their counterparts. We could not operate if we could not communicate with our sales associates or if they could not communicate with the customer.
We have never hired an undocumented worker. They are either US citizens or J-1 Visa authorized employees.
Our housing complex is located on two acres located about 1/4 mile from the closest gas station and small shopping areas in Healy, AK. Approximately 20 - 25 employees live there. No part-time employees are in the housing program. We charge $21 per week to live in the cabins. There are 15 separate small cabins. Each cabin has lights, heaters and a refrigerator. They run on ELECTRICITY. There are 3 showers, 4 toilets plus coin operated washers and dryers at the complex.
We offer trips to Fairbanks every 7-10 days. The shuttle van is driven by an employee and they can take all the time they want to shop wherever they want in Fairbanks.
We do not allow sexual harassment in any form and have a meeting with all employees each year where this is discussed along with many other subjects.
We do not allow drugs on the property and a violation of this would cause an employee to lose their job and bonus.
Please visit our website to read testimonials from former employees:
http://www.alaskasummerjob.com/denalinationalpark/testimonials.html
Thank you,
Kevin Helwig, owner
