Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

If a group of Brazilian workers is believed, some U.S. companies are still practicing a form of indentured servitude. According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. Distrcit Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, a group of Brazilian welders and pipefitters came to the U.S. as temporary H-2B guest workers for American recruiters that provide workers for shipyards. According to the suit, the workers came to this country “on promises of consistent, well compensated work at a reputable shipyard through a regulated U.S. government program.”

What looked like an American dream, however, quickly turned into an American nightmare. The suit alleges that defendants Five Star Contractors LLC, Knights Marine & Industrial Services, Inc., David Knight, and Brian Knight “manipulated the H-2B guest worker program and defrauded the U.S. government and vulnerable migrant workers to generate a large pool of easily exploitable workers that Defendants could use to provide on-call labor to Gulf Coast shipyards.”

Additionally, the suit alleges that the defendants “deceived foreign workers about the terms and conditions of work being offered and deceived the U.S. Government about their intent to comply with the terms of the program including federal, state, and local worker protection laws.”

The labor recruiters named as defendants in the case provide wage labor to shipyards along the Gulf Coast.

The workers, believing they would be gainfully and legally employed in the U.S., “plunged their families into debt to pay hiring, visa, and relocation fees and reluctantly turned over deeds to their houses with agents of Five Star,” the suit alleges.

“Upon arrival in Mississippi, they were transported to a surveillance labor camp consisting of windowless portable metal buildings while they waited weeks to be leased out. They waited weeks without work as their debts grew and they became increasingly desperate for Five Star and Knights Marine to comply with their contractual promises to workers and the U.S. Government.”

The Brazilian workers seek unspecified damages and a declaration that their rights were violated by the defendants. Charges include unlawful conduct, RICO violations, Fair Labor Standards Act violations, breach of contract, common-law fraud, and breach of good faith and fair dealing.

Source: AP

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