By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(Journal Group Link International)

Filipino-American Recruiter of Filipino Teachers in Louisiana Feels Singled Out

C HICAGO (JGLi) – A Filipino-American recruiter of Filipino teachers in Louisiana feels that she is being discriminated against by the American Federation of Teachers and Louisiana Federation of Teachers for questioning the amount of her recruiting fees.

Lourdes “Lulu” Navarro, owner of Universal Placement International based in Los Angeles, California, told this reporter over the phone that under a Louisiana law, recruiters, like her, are entitled to collect a maximum of 25 percent from the first-year salary of a Filipino teacher she successfully recruited to Louisiana. She is only collecting ten percent of the teacher’s first-year and second-year of the salary of the teacher and yet she is being sued for bilking her recruits exorbitant rates.

A check by this reporter on the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s Private Employment Informational Booklet showed that under Louisiana Revised Statute, Title 23, Section 101 et seq. effective date Current as amended through the 2008 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature and Louisiana Administrative Code, Title 40, Part XV, effective date March 20, 2002, a job applicant, who gains employment in Louisiana, shall pay an “employment service the maximum of $25,000 and up and shall never exceed 25% (of the year’s gross earning) … but in no case shall the full amount of the fee be mandatorily payable sooner than 30 days from the date of employment.”

“What’s wrong if I collect ten percent on the first year and another ten percent on the second year? If you sum them up, my staggered payment is only equivalent to a maximum of 20 percent of the first year. I wanted to make it affordable for my recruit to pay me my service fees that is why I am spreading the service fees to two years.” Ms. Navarro explained.

CHARGES $5,000 EACH TEACHER RECRUIT

A ccording to a press release from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, Ms. Navarro charged each teacher about $5,000 in placement fees to obtain a job, and a teacher was then required to sign a contract obligating him to pay ten percent of his second year salary to the company (UPI). It cited a provision of Louisiana law “(La. R.S. 23:111B(3)(a), which limits an employment services fees to the applicant’s first year’s gross earnings.”

“I am going to contest this provision,” Ms. Navarro added.

Although, the complaint last October was filed on behalf of some 360 Filipino teachers Ms. Navarro recruited, only 200 will benefit from an order issued April 16, 2010 by Administrative Law Judge Shelly Dick of the Louisiana Workforce Commission which mandated Navarro to pay an “estimated $1.8 million in illegally charged placement fees, a well as a $500 fine and $7,500 in attorney fees” for allegedly cheating 200 Filipino teachers of thousands of dollars in recruiting fees and held them in virtual servitude for keeping their visas.

Ms. Navarro denied withholding the visas of her recruits, saying, “At no time whatsoever did UPI ever withhold any visa of any teacher recruited.”

One of those recruits reached by this reporter and who refused to be identified said, “When we arrived at Los Angeles, UPI took all our passports and visas for five minutes and made copies for record purposes. Afterwards, they were all returned to us.”

RECRUITER IS APPEALING THE RULING

“Of course, I am going to appeal this ruling to a higher court,” Ms. Navarro said.

According to its June, 2009, 46-page report of the Washington, D.C.-based AFT, “Importing Educators: Causes and Consequences of International Teacher Recruitment,” a case filed against Teachers Placement Group (TPG) based in Plainview, New York by 15 teachers from India in Newark, New Jersey in 2002 asked the Newark Teachers’ Union to help them invalidate a contract they said TPG forced them to sign that obligated them to pay 25 percent of their salaries to TPG.

The teachers claimed that TPG threatened to revoke their visas if they refused to sign the contract. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division completed an investigation and originally fined the company’s leaders $120,000 for discrimination, failure to pay wages required under federal law, and non-compliance with immigration law.

TPG was also originally required to pay $187,546 in back wages to the teachers. However, the company contested the decision and all charges against TPG were dismissed and the fines TPG had to pay were reduced to $3,050 per teacher.

Judge Dick also referred Ms. Navarro’s case to appropriate authorities for criminal sanctions against UPI and Ms. Navarro.

Ms. Navarro said she has not been referred for criminal prosecution. There are no findings that Navarro as an individual did anything wrong.

Ms. Navarro asked, “What is criminal about providing teachers in Louisiana? I am just answering the call of Joe Potts, head of the Jefferson Federation of Teachers in Louisiana, who was quoted by The Times Picayune, as saying that there is serious shortage of educators in the state of Louisiana. ‘It shows you how serious the problem is if we have to go to the Philippines to recruit teachers.’”

ONE-THOUSAND TWO-HUNDRED FILIPINO TEACHERS IN MARYLAND

In the same report, “Importing Educators: Causes and Consequences of International Teacher Recruitment,” the AFT estimates that 200,000 new teachers are needed to be hired each year, 70,000 of them into high-poverty urban area. The U.S. Department of Education’s 2007 Teacher shortage Areas Nationwide Listing report finds that geographic and content specialty shortages currently exist in nearly every state. California alone estimates shortage is placed at 100,000 over the next decade.

Ms. Navarro said, "If AFT is serious about addressing this issue, why are they only going after me? There are at least 33 other agencies providing the same service and some of them even charge higher rates than my company.  People should really be asking what is the agenda of the AFT, and why am I being singled out? My overall fee is less than allowed by law and our results cannot be disputed."

She said, ‘UPI is providing a tremendous service to the Community and Students of Louisiana. That the teachers recruited through UPI have made a positive impact in schools through the increase of student performance.  That the teachers are all highly qualified individuals as required by the Federal No Child Left Behind Act."

There are more than 1,200 Filipino teachers recruited to work in the state of Maryland alone. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)  # # #