US files suit against Signal Intl for 'abusing' Indian workers

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Apr 21 (PTI) US federal authorities have filed
a lawsuit against a marine services company based in Alabama
for alleged demeaning treatment of 500 Indian employees, who
were forced to live in "substandard" accommodations and given
"unwholesome" food.
The lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) against Signal International said that these
Indian workers, brought into the country by a separate entity
which is not part of the case, were forced to live in
substandard, unsanitary accommodations.
For this, they were charged an inordinate amount, given
unwholesome food, demeaned by being referred to by numbers
instead of their names, and at least two of them were
retaliated against for complaining about the substandard
conditions and discrimination, the EEOC said.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU), Asian American Legal Defence and
Education Fund, Louisiana Justice Institute and the law firm
Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP have a class action lawsuit pending
against the same company on behalf of the same former guest
workers.
The EEOC's lawsuit against Signal charges that the company
discriminated against hundreds of Indian guest workers lured
into forced labor in Pascagoula, Mississippi and Orange,
Texas.
It alleges that Signal violated the rights of the Indian
guest workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Signal, a marine and fabrication company with shipyards in
Mississippi, Texas and Alabama, is a subcontractor for several
major multi-national firms.
After hurricane Katrina scattered its workforce, Signal
used the US government's guest worker programme to import
employees to work as welders and pipefitters, the ACLU said.
Between 2004 and 2006, hundreds of Indian men paid
Signal's recruiters as much as USD 20,000 for travel, visa,
recruitment and other fees after they were told it would lead
to good jobs, green cards and permanent US residency.
Many of the workers sold their houses and other valuables
and took out high-interest loans to come up with the money,
the ACLU said.
When the men arrived at Signal in late 2006 and early
2007, they discovered that they would not receive the green
cards as promised, but rather 10-month guest worker visas.
"Signal forced them to pay USD 1,050 a month to live in
crowded company housing in isolated, fenced labour camps where
as many as 24 men shared a trailer with only two toilets," the
ACLU said.
Signal officials have denied any wrong doings.