The agreement has been reached to resolve numerous labour trafficking lawsuits against Signal International that was found liable by a federal jury this year for defrauding and exploiting workers it lured from India. The Alabama-based company will also issue an apology to the Indian workers, who brought to the US to be employed as welders, pipefitters and in other positions to repair oil rigs and other facilities damaged by the 2005 hurricane.
The workers allegedly each paid the labor recruiters and a lawyer between USD 10,000 and USD 20,000 or more in recruitment fees and other costs after recruiters promised good jobs, green cards and permanent US residency for them and their families. Most sold property or plunged their families deeply into debt to pay the fees, according to a statement on Wednesday from Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), a civil rights law firm that spearheaded the lawsuits.
However, when the men arrived from India in 2006, they discovered that they would not receive the green cards or permanent residency that had been promised.
The company also allegedly forced them each to pay USD 1,050 a month to live in “isolated, guarded labor camps” where as many as 24 men were cramped in small rooms while none of the company?s non-Indian workers were required to live in the company housing.
Signal has filed for bankruptcy protection and the agreement, once approved, would resolve the 11 lawsuits against it representing the more than 200 Indian workers.