Lawyer says Filipino recruiter will appeal fine

The attorney for a recruiter charged with victimizing Filipino teachers in Louisiana says he will appeal an order demanding repayment of $1.8 million in improperly collected fees, according to this article by Advocate reporter Joe Gyan, Jr.

Last spring, Administrative law Judge Shelly Dick ruled that Universal Placement International and its owner, Lourdes "Lulu" Navarro illegally collected fees from about 360 Filipino teachers hired to work in Louisiana schools. That decision was part of a much larger investigation into Navarro's practices, which the teachers' union representatives likened to human trafficking. The Filipino teachers are represented by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers in the action.

Navarro has a history of violating the law - she has been convicted of defrauding a government agency in California and of money laundering in New Jersey.

Navarro's attorney, Murphy Foster I, appealed Judge Dick's decision. On December 30, District Judge Janice Clark of Baton Rouge upheld the original ruling. In a move already expected by Federation attorneys, Foster says he intends to appeal Judge Clark's ruling to the State Court of Appeal.

In defense of the indefensible

What do you do?

Your client is a convicted felon who's been found guilty of violating Louisiana's labor law, and has been ordered to repay victimized foreign teachers some $1.8 million in illegally charged fees.

The foreign teachers who were ripped off by the client joined a union which brought the case that resulted in the judgment.

That same union unearthed evidence that your client is guilty of violating Racketeering Influenced Organized Crime statutes, and is assisting in a federal suit to claim damages on behalf of the foreign teachers.

You appear in district court to ask a judge to overturn the ruling against your client.

What do you do?

If you are the attorney for the disgraced and disreputable Lourdes "Lulu" Navarro and Universal Placement International, you claim that the union actually hates the foreign teachers on whose behalf these actions were filed. You claim that there is a secret union plot to get rid of the teachers.

And you hope that you've made enough noise to deflect attention from the uncomfortable facts of the case.

Advocate reporter Joe Gyan covered the story for this report; the LFT Web site has more information here and here.

Another shoe drops in Filipino scandal

Another shoe has dropped in the ongoing Filipino teacher scandal. In April, an administrative law judge found that the company which recruited Filipino teachers for Louisiana schools was guilty of breaking state labor law, and fined Universal Placement International $1.8 million.

Today the Louisiana Federation of Teachers announced a federal RICO lawsuit against UPI, its sister company, PARS, and the principals of those companies.

But it goes deeper than that. Also named in the suit, filed by the American Federation of Teachers, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Covington and Burling LLP, are the East Baton Rouge School District and some of its administrators. It is charged that they actively participated in a scheme in which foreign teachers "were cheated out of tens of thousands of dollars and forced into exploitative contracts by an international trafficking ring run by labor contractors."

“For more than two years, we have been working toward this moment,” said Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan. “The practices described in this lawsuit are disgusting, unacceptable and, frankly, un-American."

It is amazing that the recruiting agency was able to do business at all in Louisiana. Its president, Lourdes "Lulu" Navarro, had served jail time in California for defrauding the state medical system, and was found guilty of fraud in New Jersey as well.

Watch for some disturbing and shocking revelations when testimony is heard in this case.

Next shoe drops in Filipino teacher scandal

Adding to the troubles faced by Filipino teacher recruiter Lourdes "Lulu" Navarro, the American Federation of Teachers has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor. The complaint alleges that Navarro's company, Universal Placement International, violated federal laws when it exploited, intimidated and threatened the teachers.

The federal complaint follows closely on the heels of charges filed with the Louisiana Workforce Commission and Attorney General, alleging that Navarro violated state laws when she recruited over 200 Filipino teachers to work in school districts across the state.

The AFT complaint, at 141 pages long, includes allegations that some Louisiana school districts "submitted false statements to exceed the cap for work visas," according to this article by Shreveport Times reporter Icess Fernandez.

AFT President Randi Weingarten pledged the union's support for the aggrieved Filipino teachers, saying "The allegations, backed by the facts, show these teachers to be victims of worker abuses like the ones in our students' history books: indentured servitude, debt bondage and labor contracts signed under duress. at makes these allegations especially heinous is that the victims are good teachers, that school districts and tax dollars are involved, and that all this is taking place in 21st-century America."

To read more, please click here.

Editorials condemn Filipino recruiter, demand action

Demand is mounting for full-scale investigations of the abuses perpetrated by Filipino teacher recruiter Lourdes Navarro and her company, Universal Placement International.

From the Shreveport Times:

Solving our teacher shortages is critical if we are to ensure the best education
for our children. But what was once viewed as a resourceful answer to filling
these gaps has now become a huge embarrassment. It deserves now a full
investigation. And wherever fault lies, let's hope hard lessons have been
learned.

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

The Filipino workers have helped fill a shortage of teachers after Hurricane
Katrina, and the exploitation they allege should be intolerable. If the
accusations are true, officials need to stop this abuse before more foreign
workers are victims of it.

This is a story that won't be disappearing from the news any time soon.