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Immigrant Justice

Date Filed

March 17, 2008

Immigrant workers hired to repair storm-damaged apartments in New Orleans were routinely cheated out of wages and endured forced labor while living in crowded and dilapidated employer-provided housing. This federal lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, together with the Pro Bono Project and the National Employment Law Project, alleges the employers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Victims of Trafficking Protection Act.

Immigrant Justice

Date Filed

March 10, 2008

Hundreds of guest workers from India, lured by false promises of permanent U.S. residency, each paid more than $10,000 to obtain temporary jobs at Gulf Coast shipyards only to find themselves subjected to forced labor and living in overcrowded, guarded labor camps. The SPLC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the workers, David v. Signal International, LLC. Three years later, a lawsuit was filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC v. Signal International, LLC, alleging that Signal unlawfully discriminated against the Indian guest workers. 

Features and Stories
March 10, 2008

Hundreds of guestworkers from India, lured by false promises of permanent U.S. residency, paid tens of thousands of dollars each to obtain temporary jobs at Gulf Coast shipyards only to find themselves forced into involuntary servitude and living in overcrowded, guarded labor camps, according to a class action lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Features and Stories
June 26, 2007

Migrant workers who flocked to New Orleans to rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina were routinely cheated out of wages and faced other abuses while the U.S. Department of Labor made little effort to police the contractors employing them, a Southern Poverty Law Center attorney told a House subcommittee today.

Features and Stories
June 15, 2007

Mary Bauer of the Southern Poverty Law Center testified on June 7 before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor about the widespread abuse of foreign guest workers, who are systematically cheated out of wages and denied the most basic protections of the marketplace, such as the right to change jobs.

Immigrant Justice

Date Filed

June 07, 2007

A federal judge has held Candy Brand and its individual owners accountable for routinely cheating migrant farmworkers out of wages. The court also held that the company’s failure to pay overtime wages and reimburse workers’ expenses was a breach of Candy Brand’s contract with each worker it exploited. As a result, the company and owners will be required to satisfy any judgment, which could be over $2 million dollars.

Features and Stories
May 16, 2007

A landmark decision in a federal lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center will provide relief to thousands of legal, foreign guestworkers who typically are forced to pay exorbitant fees to obtain low-wage, temporary jobs in the United States.

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