‘Targeted Coercion’: Salvation Army Hit with Class Action Over Alleged Reliance on ‘Forced Labor’ Provided by ARC Program

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action lawsuit alleges the Salvation Army has coerced vulnerable Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) program participants into working at its thrift stores under threat of harm, including incarceration and reputational and financial damage. 

The 43-page case in Illinois alleges the Salvation Army has long abused the criminal justice system as a means to secure the bulk of its labor force. According to the complaint, the SA accomplishes this by soliciting referrals from courts and probation programs and thereby appropriates the “coercive power of the state” to force workers, many of whom are economically vulnerable, to work for the benefit of defendants Salvation Army National Corporation and Salvation Army Central Territorial. 

According to the lawsuit, courts and other arms of the criminal justice system have in the last decade ordered or diverted hundreds or thousands of people, generally those with drug or alcohol use disorders, to the Salvation Army’s ARC program as a condition of probation or parole and/or an alternative to incarceration. Per the suit, every ARC requires participants to work in the Salvation Army’s commercial operations as a condition of enrollment. 

Overall, the Salvation Army, the lawsuit says, engages in a “scheme, plan, or pattern” designed to cause its ARC workforce to believe that they will suffer serious harm, such as financial instability, homelessness, the inability to obtain paid work, or a return to incarceration, should they fail to perform work for the defendants.

Although the SA holds the ARC program out to be a no-cost measure to “tackle the symptoms and causes of alcohol and drug dependence,” and operates ARC under the guise of “work therapy,” the defendant requires everyone enrolled in the program to work long hours in physically demanding jobs that further the defendants’ commercial interests, the filing says. In exchange for this work, ARC participants receive a “gratuity” of between roughly $1 and $25 per full week of work, “equating to pennies an hour for their labor,” the lawsuit claims. 

“The Salvation Army does not afford its ARC workforce the rights that are enjoyed by any of its other employees,” the plaintiffs allege. “The justice-referred ARC workforce does not have a choice about whether they work. They must report to and participate in the ARC program or they risk violating their terms of parole or probation and reincarceration.” 

Moreover, the suit says the Salvation Army’s apparent conduct is not limited to justice-referred ARC participants, as the SA also solicits walk-ins who, like those referred to the program through probation or diversion, are “often extremely economically vulnerable.” 

“Defendant SA Central Territory exploits these vulnerabilities to coerce walk-in participants to perform physically demanding labor, often alongside paid employees performing the same work,” the case claims.  

The lawsuit calls forced labor a “core tenant” of the Salvation Army’s ARC program, claiming it is impossible to participate in ARC without working in the SA’s commercial operations.

According to the case, SA Central Territory, one of four territories situated nationwide, ensures the ARC workforce continues to provide labor by “threatening serious harm to them should they stop working.” From the complaint: 

“For example, Defendant SA Central Territory threatens to report justice-referred participants for violations of their terms of probation or parole (‘conditions’) if the justice-referred participant fails to complete their required labor in the time and manner dictated by Defendant SA Central Territory. Specifically, Defendant SA Central Territory threatens to contact participants’ parole or probation officers, or even the sentencing court, to report a violation. 

Defendant SA Central Territory knows that such a report could result in the worker being incarcerated or otherwise punished by the justice system for allegedly violating their conditions of probation or parole.” 

The complaint goes on to state that the Salvation Army requires its ARC workforce to live on site, and severely restricts their contact with anyone outside of the SA for the first month to six weeks of their involvement in the program. Moreover, the Salvation Army limits ARC participants’ ability to work outside paid jobs, the suit claims, and allegedly requires many to sign over their food and other governmental support benefits and/or vouchers.

“By paying participants pennies an hour for their labor and monopolizing their time, The Salvation Army ensures that participants must work for months before they can save enough money from ‘gratuities’ to provide for their most basic needs for even a few days outside of The Salvation Army’s ARC program,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit alleges the Salvation Army has violated the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. 

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.