‘Indentured Servitude:’ Staffing Agency CommuniCare Sued Over Alleged Unpaid Overtime, Worker Intimidation

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A lawsuit claims the CommuniCare Family of Companies has failed to pay proper overtime to registered nurses recruited from the Philippines and threatened to sue the workers if they quit before repaying $16,000 in so-called immigration expenses.

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The 52-page proposed class and collective action says that the Ohio-headquartered staffing company has failed to pay time-and-a-half overtime wages to registered nurses recruited from the Philippines for hours they have worked in excess of 40 per week in its clients’ healthcare facilities.

Additionally, the suit charges that CommuniCare’s staffing practices amount essentially to “indentured servitude,” as the company requires nurses to stay on for 36 months unless they repay the $16,000 CommuniCare claims to have spent on each worker’s immigration, including recruitment fees, temporary housing and legal costs.

What’s more, CommuniCare allegedly threatens its workers with legal action to intimidate them into remaining in their positions, and sues nurses “who dare to leave,” the complaint says, claiming the defendant “follows through” on its threats of litigation.

“CommuniCare profits by charging healthcare facility-clients more for healthcare workers’ labor than it pays the workers in wages and benefits,” the filing summarizes. “Therefore, the longer CommuniCare can make healthcare workers continue to work for it, the more it can profit from their labor.”

To sponsor a green-card worker employed in a healthcare position under the EB-2 and EB-3 visa categories, CommuniCare has to certify to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that it will pay the worker the “prevailing wage” paid to similar employees in comparable positions, the lawsuit explains. Per the suit, CommuniCare also has to attest that the position’s conditions and environment are in line with federal, state, or local laws, and that the company would place a worker on its payroll no later than upon his or her arrival in the U.S.

The case contends that CommuniCare’s assurances to USCIS were misrepresentations because the company “intended to subject workers … to the threat of having to kickback [their] wages to cover CommuniCare’s own business costs.” For nurses who left their positions, their pay “fell substantially below the promised prevailing wage,” the complaint asserts.

Further, nurses were also “benched” for periods of time before their assignments began, during which they were not on CommuniCare’s payroll, the filing claims.

All told, the complaint accuses CommuniCare of defrauding both the federal government and foreign workers alike.

Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that CommuniCare knew its nurses regularly worked more than 40 hours per week due to widespread understaffing yet still neglected to compensate them properly for the overtime hours, including for meal periods and off-the-clock hours during which nurses purportedly continued to work.

In addition, the suit charges that the $16,000 repayment provision in each nurse’s employment contract is “disproportionate to the actual costs” paid by the defendant for immigration services, and is “essentially indentured servitude” in disguise.

According to the case, any legal action taken by CommuniCare against workers who leave their positions is “baseless and abusive” and designed to “induce fear” and deter other nurses from doing the same.

The plaintiff, a Filipino citizen and former employee who lawfully lives in Texas, was offered employment by the defendant in February 2021 and was required to sign a non-negotiable letter contract that contained “four pages of legalese in English” that she could barely understand, the complaint claims. The woman signed this contract and a second one sent in July 2022, which outlined the $16,000 repayment provision, “because she feared that if she did not, CommuniCare would withdraw its immigration sponsorship [and] revoke her green card,” the filing relays.

Although the plaintiff arrived in the U.S. on July 19 of that year, she was given an assignment on September 26, the case claims. Between the two dates, she was not on the defendant’s payroll, the lawsuit alleges.

In her position at Green Park Senior Living Community in St. Louis, the plaintiff regularly worked beyond her 12-hour shift—often working through meal periods and off the clock—because of severe understaffing, the suit says. In fact, the woman claims to have worked an average of about 50-55 hours per week and handled up to 40 long-term care patients on most days, the case relays.

The plaintiff reports that the “breakneck work pace” was “dangerous” and “jeopardized her [nursing] license and the lives of her patients,” the complaint says.

As the filing explains, the plaintiff “felt desperate, helpless and depressed” and was “terrified to resign from her job” despite what she felt were unsafe working conditions that threatened her future as a nurse.

The lawsuit looks to represent all non-exempt, hourly-paid healthcare workers currently and formerly employed by CommuniCare at any time since February 17, 2020. The suit also looks to cover any foreign-trained registered nurses sponsored by CommuniCare through the immigration process who, within the statute of limitations period, were not paid during periods when they were in the United States but were not assigned to a healthcare facility or were waiting for an assignment to begin, and/or who were required by CommuniCare to sign contracts with a repayment provision.

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