Most of the exploited guest workers were from Kerala.
AB Wire
NEW YORK: Signal International will pay $20 million to settle lawsuits alleging fraud and labor trafficking by the Alabama oil rig repair company, which brought hundreds of guest workers from India to work on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, with the lure of Green Cards and permanent residency too, but the workers were exploited instead.
The settlement, which included an apology by the company to about 200 guest workers involved in the suits, must win the approval by a bankruptcy court in Delaware, where Signal filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sunday, reported Reuters.
“These workers have waited seven long years for justice,” Jim Knoepp, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a prepared statement, noting that the Southern Poverty Law Center spearheaded the litigation.
“This agreement and apology from the company will allow the workers to finally move on with their lives,” he said.
The settlement enables the company to resolve 11 lawsuits still pending after the first five plaintiffs in the litigation won a federal verdict from Signal in February. The jury in that case awarded $14 million in damages to the Indian guest workers.
All the plaintiffs, including the initial five, will share in $20 million settlement in lieu of the earlier damage award, a spokeswoman for the plaintiffs said, the Reuters report said.
After the four-week trial in New Orleans in February, the jury found that Signal had recruited hundreds of Indian men under the U.S. guest worker program to repair oil rigs and facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The workers paid $10,000 apiece to recruiters and were promised good jobs and permanent U.S. residency for their families. After arriving at Signal shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi, they discovered that they would not receive promised residency documents.
Signal also charged the men $1,050 a month to live in guarded labor camps in inhumane conditions, the jury found. An economist who reviewed Signal’s records for the plaintiffs estimated the company saved more than $8 million by hiring the Indian workers.
Workers paid $10,000 to $20,000 to recruiters Signal hired, forcing the workers to take on considerable debt. All told, Signal brought in 500 Indian workers to work as pipefitters, welders and other jobs, though the company said many who came to the U.S. did not have the skills they claimed, reported Nola.com.
Workers lived in camps at the yard, bunkhouses the size of a double-wide trailer each housing as many as two dozen men. Signal guards would not allow them to bring guests or alcohol. Upon arriving, they also learned the recruiters Signal hired could not deliver on promises of visas and permanent residency for the workers.
Because of their heavy debts and rules of the visa program that brought them to the U.S., the workers could not leave Signal to work for other employers once they arrived. Several workers who complained about conditions at the shipyard and met with attorneys in 2007 were detained by Signal security guards and deported. The workers filed suit in 2008.
Nola.com reported Signal said its shipyards in Mobile and Pascagoula, Miss., will continue under oversight by the bankruptcy court. Court papers filed Sunday indicate the company has more than $100 million in debt, but less than $50 million in assets, AL.com reported.
“This agreement will ensure some compensation for these workers who only sought a better life when they took these jobs,” said Alan Howard, Southern Poverty Law Center board chairman and a partner in Crowell & Moring’s New York office. “They persevered and won justice. This agreement sends a powerful message that guest workers have rights and cannot be exploited.”
The exploited workers who sued had led a nationwide campaign to highlight their plight, even coming to New York and demonstrating in Manhattan. Most of the workers who came from India, were from the state of Kerala.