Lawsuit Filed Against Healthcare Staffing Agency on behalf of Foreign-Born Nurses
STUEVE SIEGEL HANSON FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST WESTWAYS STAFFING SERVICES AND UNIVERSAL HEALTH SYSTEMS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN-BORN HEALTHCARE WORKERS.
Stueve Siegel Hanson, a national litigation firm representing healthcare workers, and Robinson Calcagnie, Inc. have filed a lawsuit against Westways Staffing Services, Inc., (“Westways”) and its health system client, Universal Health Systems, Inc. (“UHS”) for recruiting foreign-born healthcare workers to the United States under false pretenses, and then using fraud and coercive tactics to continue profiting from their labor and services.
The lawsuit, currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that in order to maximize profits, international staffing agencies like Westways engage in deceptive recruitment tactics to get foreign-born nurses to commit to positions in the United States, but when they arrive, often with little money, no support system, and no understanding of their legal rights, they are placed at different locations than promised, for less pay than promised. They are often assigned to departments that are severely understaffed, and required to perform functions for which they lack proper training. And many of these agencies, including Westways, coerce their foreign born nurses to stay in these positions by threatening them with stiff financial penalties, litigation, reports to governmental and collection agencies, and negative immigration consequences if they leave their employment.
“Our clients are two of the thousands of nurses who immigrate to the United States each year to fill critical gaps in patient care in American hospitals,” said Plaintiffs’ attorney Larkin Walsh of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP. “They were brought to the United States under false pretenses, and then forced to stay in positions paying far less than prevailing wage, less than their domestic counterparts, and in violation of federal and state labor laws, because Westways threatened them with an oppressive termination penalty and other action if they were to leave.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Westways’ clients, including facilities and health systems like UHS, at which the nurses work, are jointly liable under the law for turning a blind eye to these unlawful practices and continuing to benefit from foreign-born nurses’ labor, despite that they know or should know that these nurses are being exploited.
“We are honored to represent these individuals, and all others similarly situated, to shine a light on these coercive and exploitative practices,” said Ms. Walsh. “This is a modern form of indentured servitude that violates prohibitions on forced labor and labor trafficking embodied in the Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act, a human rights statute that empowers people who have experienced forced labor or forced sexual services to seek redress in court—from those who obtained their forced labor and also those who benefitted from it.”
The case is Wy, et al., v. Westways, et al., No. 24-00980, and is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Stueve Siegel Hanson is also investigating similar practices by other organizations and staffing agencies, in the healthcare industry and beyond.
If you believe you may have been the victim of these practices at another organization or in another industry, please reach out to us by filling out a contact form or contacting us at TVPA@stuevesiegel.com.
Our firm represents healthcare workers in litigation throughout the country in a variety of areas, including pay discrimination, failure to compensate for all hours worked, and sexual harassment and abuse at the workplace.
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