In the first award of its kind involving Indian workers brought to the US on H-2B visas and made to work and live under exploitative and subhuman conditions, a New Orleans federal jury has awarded a whopping $14 million in compensatory and punitive damages to five guest workers. After a four-week trial before US District Judge Susie Morgan, the jury concluded that the workers had been defrauded and exploited in a labour trafficking scheme engineered by an American marine services company, an immigration lawyer and an Indian labour recruiter.
The jury held that Signal International, New Orleans lawyer Malvern C Burnett and India-based recruiter Sachin Dewan had all engaged in labour trafficking, fraud, racketeering and discrimination. It also found that one of the five plaintiffs was a victim of false imprisonment and retaliation. It is the first settlement in a series of cases involving Indian workers that is being spearheaded by the Southern Poverty law Centre, the reputed Alabama-based civil rights and public interest litigation group. lawsuits on behalf of an additional 200-odd Indian workers are still awaiting disposal.
“This historic verdict puts American companies on notice that if they exploit the flaws in our temporary worker programme, they will be held accountable and punished,” said Chandra Bhatnagar, co-counsel in the case and senior staff attorney with the American Civil liberties Union Human Rights Programme.
The story of the hapless Indian workers dates back to early 2006 – in the aftermath of the deadly Hurricane Katrina that ravaged the US Gulf Coast. It was then that Signal International imported nearly 500 men from India to work in positions such as welders and pipefitters to repair damaged oil rigs and related facilities.
The workers had been lured with false promises of handsome pay and permanent US residency. But when they arrived at Signal shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi, they discovered soon enough that the green card promise was a hoax. That apart, Signal forced each worker to pay $1,050 a month to live in isolated, guarded labour camps where as many as 24 men shared a space the size of a double-wide trailer. None of Signal’s non-Indian workers were required to live in the company housing.
“The defendants exploited our clients, put their own profits over the lives of these honorable workers, and tried to deny them their day in court,” said lead attorney Alan Howard, who is also chairman of the Southern Poverty law Centre board, adding: “But they persevered and after seven long years have received the justice they so well deserve.”