NLRB Issues Federal Labor Complaint Against Health Care Company for "Stay-or-Pay" Clauses
The General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board has issued a Federal Complaint against CommuniCare, a healthcare company that recruits nurses from the Philippines to work in its nursing homes. Communicare requires these nurses to sign employment contracts with harsh financial penalties if they resign from their jobs for three years. Five nurses left their jobs after they came to the US, finding that their work imposed onerous working conditions like chronic short-staffing and unrealistic patient-ratios. CommuniCare then sued them for over $50,000 in addition to attorneys’ fees, and interest in penalties for resigning.
The NLRB General Counsel charges that the “stay-or-pay” clauses and CommuniCare’s lawsuits to enforce these clauses violate federal labor law. It further charges CommuniCare with imposing other illegal work rules on its nurses, including rules prohibiting criticism of the Company and restricting nurses from disclosing information about their employment to the public. Our firm is committed to fighting these practices, which amount to a modern form of indentured servitude.
The nurses in this case worked at locations across four states, Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The nurses are represented by Mark Hanna, Arlus Stephens and Grace Anzalone of Murphy Anderson, Elizabeth Koo of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Clement Tsao of Herzfeld, Suetholz, Gastel, Leniski & Wall PLLC.