AFT Attorney Dan McNeil, left, grills Universal Placement International director Jack Navarro in a Louisiana Workforce Commission hearing.

LFT president: Recruiter’s behavior “disgusting and an affront to basic American values.”

(Baton Rouge - April 6, 2009) Filipino teachers in Louisiana saw the wheels of justice take a turn on Monday when the state’s Workforce Development Commission held a hearing on the validity of contracts that allegedly violate state and federal law.

In the next two weeks, an administrative law judge will rule on complaints filed against Universal Placement International by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers. The company recruited Filipino teachers for Louisiana classrooms.

Testimony by teachers revealed shocking details of company practices that one called “bondage and harassment.”

“The alleged behavior of this recruiter and the treatment of these teachers is quite frankly disgusting and an affront to basic American values,” said LFT President Steve Monaghan.

Penalties that could be assessed against the California-based UPI include the voiding of all contracts with Filipino teachers, refunds of the thousands of dollars in fees paid by the teachers, and fines.

A director of the company, Jack Navarro, admitted under oath that the company does not have a license to act as an employment agency in Louisiana and does not maintain an office here, as required by law. Since the complaints were filed, he said, UPI applied for a license and was denied.

Navarro ‘s attorney, Murphy Foster, argued that Louisiana’s law does not apply because UPI is a “placement agency,” not an “employment agency.”

Union attorney Dan McNeil presented evidence that UPI and a sister company collected fees totaling thousands of dollars from the teachers, as well as a 20% commission on their first year’s salary, before they even left the Philippines for Louisiana. They were then expected to contribute 10% of their second year’s salary as well.

Those who did not have the resources were directed to finance companies which charged exorbitant interest rates.

Once deeply in debt, teachers testified, they were asked to sign contracts in the Philippines, but were not given enough time to read them and were not allowed to have copies.

When they arrived in the U.S., they said, company representatives collected their passports and would not return them until the teachers signed another copy of the contract. Tired and hungry after their journey, teachers said, they were allowed to eat after signing the contract.

Among other allegations raised in sworn testimony were these:

• Teachers were issued work visas based on guarantees that a job was waiting for them in a particular Louisiana school. Many arrived in the state to find that they had no job offer, which could be a violation of federal immigration law.
• The fees paid to UPI by the teachers were supposed to be paid instead by their new employers, according to U.S. immigration law.
• Some teachers were sent to school districts with much lower salary schedules than expected, but were still required to pay commissions based on the higher salaries.
• Many teachers were required to overpay for housing in squalid conditions. Living four people in two-bedroom apartments, the teachers were not allowed to choose their own roommates.

In all, more than 300 Filipino teachers were recruited to Louisiana by UPI. They have been advised by the union to suspend any further payments to UPI until the case is settled.

The union is asking the Workforce Development Commission to declare all of the UPI contracts null and void, order UPI to repay teachers any money collected by the company, and to impose criminal penalties on the company.

Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that UPI referred teachers to a finance company owned by the husband of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.  That reporting was based on a statement made by UPI attorney Murphy Foster during the hearing.

We have learned that the company recommended by UPI, FG Financial Company, probably is not connected to the Philippine first gentleman, as he is known in the country. A reporter told the American Federation of Teachers that UPI President Lulu Navarro may have led teachers to believe that they were, indeed, dealing with Arroyo. The reporter suggested that Navarro made no effort to disabuse this belief of the teachers and, as a general practice, sought to make people believe she is well-connected.