Source:
GannetUnion files complaint with feds against recruiting firm
By Icess Fernandez •
[email protected] • October 23, 2009
A national teachers' union filed a complaint with the federal government against the recruiting company that brought Filipino teachers to the Caddo school district.
The American Federation of Teachers filed a 141-page complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor's wage and hour division against California-based Universal Placement International and its president Lourdes "Lulu" Navarro. The document alleges teachers recruited in the Philippines were directed to pay thousands of dollars in fees that the school districts should have paid. It also claims some of the school districts submitted false statements to exceed the cap for work visas.
Caddo, along with East Baton Rouge, Jefferson and the Recovery School District in New Orleans are mentioned in the complaint.
"The allegations, backed by the facts, show these teachers to be victims of worker abuses like the ones in our students' history books: indentured servitude, debt bondage and labor contracts signed under duress," said AFT President Randi Weingarten. "What makes these allegations especially heinous is that the victims are good teachers, that school districts and tax dollars are involved, and that all this is taking place in 21st-century America."
The complaints come weeks after the union's state chapter, Louisiana Federation of Teachers, submitted a complaint on behalf of more than 200 Filipino teachers statewide to the state attorney general and the Louisiana Workforce Commission. Among the allegations is that teachers had to pay about $15,000 each to apply for jobs in school districts in the United States. Once they were here, they paid 10 percent of their monthly salary to Universal Placement International. According to the complaint, teachers were threatened with harm to their families back home if they didn't pay.
Both entities continue to investigate the allegations.
In June 2008, three Caddo administrators traveled to the Philippines to hire teachers for difficult-to-fill positions in subjects such as math and special education. Eventually, 43 teachers were hired. The district has not returned to the country to recruit more teachers since the initial trip, officials said.
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In the federal complaint, the union claims violations against the Immigration and Nationality Act. Among the violations are:
n The school systems did not pay for the H-1B visa petition, including attorney's fees, costs, processing and fraud prevention. These fees were paid to UPI by the teachers.
UPI secured one-year visas for teachers instead of the three year H-1B visas. The visas the teachers received had to be renewed, and the associated fees were charged to teachers by the company. The law states the cost is covered by the employer.
Read more:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20091023/NEWS04/910230311/1063
Nice to see someone stand up to the H-1b racket
Nice to see a union doing it's job
Tech workers had an attitide of 'we dont need no unions, we work hard and management values us'
management valued tech workers with a baseball bat as a reward for their loyalty
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