A federal jury awarded $4.5 million to Filipinoteachers who paid large fees to obtain U.S. jobs through a placement agency.
Jurors on Monday found that Los Angeles-based UniversalPlacement International Inc. and its owner, Lourdes Navarro, failed to properlydisclose the fees for the 350 teachers who were recruited for $40,000-a-yearjobs in Louisiana, mostly in East Baton Rouge Parish.
The teachers arrived in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009 undera federal program that grants worker permits to foreigners with special skills.Most went to the East Baton Rouge Parish, but others went to Caddo, Jeffersonand other parishes and to state-run schools in New Orleans.
In 2010, the American Federation of Teachers, the law firmCovington and Burling LLC, and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued on behalfof some teachers who complained that before ever leaving the Philippines theyhad to borrow money to pay thousands of dollars charged by the company — asmuch as $16,000 in some cases. That's five times the average annual householdincome in the country.
The class-action suit claimed that more unexpected fees andexpensive legal entanglements followed once the teachers arrived in the UnitedStates. For example, contracts were required in which the teachers agreed topay a percentage of their monthly income to Universal, along with fees forarranging housing.
Passports and visas were confiscated to ensure the feeswould be paid, the lawsuit said.
The suit claimed the threat of huge debt and loss of theirvisas amounted to forced labor under a federal law against human traffickingpassed by Congress in 2000.
After a two-week trial, jurors rejected the humantrafficking arguments but found the recruiting agency had negligentlymisrepresented the fees and violated California laws governing employmentagencies and unfair business acts, attorneys for both sides said.
"The jury sent a clear message that exploitative andabusive business practices involving federal guest workers will not betolerated," Mary Bauer, legal director for the Southern Poverty LawCenter, said in a statement.
Don A. Hernandez, a lawyer who represented the company, saidthere was no intentional wrongdoing by his client regarding disclosure of fees.He called the lawsuit a "witch hunt."
"These teachers voluntarily took on whatever debt theydid to pay the fees to come to the United States. They were not forced, thejury found," he said.
Hernandez said he would seek to have the award figurereduced because the Louisiana Workforce Commission earlier awarded return ofthe same fees.
A judge earlier dismissed the East Baton Rouge Parish SchoolBoard as a defendant in the case.