Filipino nurses for Ohio-based company say they have been forced to pay thousands in fees after signing training contracts

Filipino nurses for Ohio-based company say they have been forced to pay thousands in fees after signing training contracts

Filipino nurses are calling for the US’s top labor watchdog to review controversial “stay or pay” training repayment agreement provisions that have left them facing lawsuits and thousands of dollars in fees after they quit their jobs.

Training repayment agreement provisions (Trap) are contracts employers require workers to sign before beginning a job and stipulate that if a worker leaves the job before a specified time, they owe substantial fees.

Nurses who worked for the Ohio-based CommuniCare Family of Companies, one of the largest providers of post-acute care in the US, say they have been subjected to buyout fees of thousands of dollars when they resign and have been sued by their former employer.

Jeddalyn Ramos, a 30-year-old from the Philippines worked for four months at a CommuniCare-owned short-term and senior rehab facility in Pittsburgh in 2022 and paid $15,555.45 in fees when she quit her job.

  • Copernican@lemmy.world
    22·
    10 months ago

    Jeddalyn Ramos, a 30-year-old from the Philippines worked for four months at a CommuniCare-owned short-term and senior rehab facility in Pittsburgh in 2022 and paid $15,555.45 in fees when she quit her job.

    After paying the fee, Ramos was sued for $100,000 or more by CommuniCare for quitting her job before the three years required by her employment agreement.

    So she paid back the training fee and then they sued her for more? WTF.

    Also, I can’t tell if are there differences in training fees vs immigration/lawyer fees. One of the quotes made it sound like the cost was about getting the employee over to the USA, and not the training. I can’t tell if that is actually TRAP fees or a different class of fee. I didn’t realize that the were not H1B visas. If a company sponsors legal fees for a more permanent type of visa, should there be an expectation to pay those back if the employee doesn’t stay in the position for a certain amount of time as long as not punitive and properly itemized and paid by the employer to the law firm (assuming not in house immigration lawyers).

    The nurses arrive to the US with EB-3 visas, which do not link their immigration status to their employer like other visa programs, so they can work elsewhere.

    3 year contract requirement seems insane and fuck the employer for clawing back full cost, but I could also see it being a challenge if company A pays the legal fees to get the visa and then competitive company B poaches those workers in 3 months. Not what happens in this case, but could understand some justification for a clawback on those legal visa/immigration fees.