Lawsuits for Immigrant Healthcare Workers: Not Allowed to Quit?

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are looking into whether certain companies have violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) by imposing restrictive employment contracts on immigrant healthcare workers.

Specifically, the attorneys believe some employers may be requiring foreign healthcare workers to sign illegal contracts that require them to stay at their job for a certain amount of time or pay a hefty fee, sometimes represented as the cost of immigration expenses. Some immigrant healthcare workers may also be told that they won’t be able to work somewhere else if they quit their job.

The attorneys suspect that these restrictive contracts could be illegal under the TVPA, a federal law that prohibits anyone from knowingly obtaining a person’s labor by threatening them with “serious harm” (including psychological, financial or reputational harm) if they do not perform the labor.

The attorneys also believe that some of these companies may be violating federal and state labor laws by paying foreign healthcare workers less than the prevailing wage rates for their positions.

Lawsuits: Foreign Healthcare Workers Signed Illegal Contracts

Several lawsuits have been filed alleging that certain companies have violated the TVPA and other laws by recruiting foreign workers under immigration sponsorships and having them sign restrictive contracts that threaten them with penalties if they leave their jobs.

For example, a lawsuit was filed in February 2023 against an Ohio staffing company that hired nurses primarily from the Philippines under the EB-2 and EB-3 visa programs to work in healthcare facilities. According to the case, the nurses signed contracts that required them to stay at the staffing company for 36 months or pay a $16,000 fee—purportedly to cover expenses paid by the company for recruitment fees, workers’ housing and legal costs. The lawsuit claimed the staffing agency subjected nurses to “unexpectedly harsh employment terms and unsafe workplace conditions” and sued workers who left before their contracts were up.

Another lawsuit, which resulted in an individual settlement, claimed a staffing company recruited and sponsored foreign-trained physical therapists, physiotherapists, exercise physiologists and physical therapy assistants “under contracts of indentured servitude.” The plaintiff, a physical therapist from the Philippines, said she and other foreign workers had to sign a standard contract requiring them to continue working for the staffing agency until they pay or work off $10,000 in “liquidated damages,” plus the cost of recruiting another therapist, which is “usually 50% of said therapist’s annual salary.” The plaintiff claimed she was unable to quit her job when she wanted to because she feared having to pay the “severe financial penalty” in her contract and the risk that she may be sued if she refused to pay it.

How Could a Lawsuit Help?

A class action lawsuit could allow immigrant healthcare workers to recover money for any harm they experienced as a result of the potentially illegal contracts, which could include lost wages, emotional distress and more.

In some cases, workers who were not paid in accordance with federal and state labor laws may also be able to recover back pay.

A lawsuit could also force employers to change their recruiting and hiring practices with respect to immigrant healthcare workers.

What You Can Do

Are you an immigrant who was employed as a healthcare worker in the U.S.? Did you sign a contract requiring you to pay a fee or immigration costs if you quit your job—or were you told that you wouldn’t be able to work somewhere else if you left?

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