Newsletter March 2022 Nurse Attorney Edie Brous

I was a traveling nurse in the 1980s and obtained a wealth of experience, adaptability, and memories that I would not trade for anything. I was able to see the entire country and learn how differently things were done in other places. I developed lifelong friendships. I had the opportunity to take care of patient populations & engage in clinical practices that would not have been possible otherwise. It was fun and it was safe. But that was the 80s. It was a different time.

Although there were staffing shortages, we weren’t dealing with a pandemic. Traveling nurses went to provide staffing support; but were not exploited. The difference in hourly wages was not mercenary. We were paid a larger hourly wage than the staff, but had no benefits, so actually earned about the same amount. And I am white. I was unaware that my colleagues of color were experiencing nursing differently. And I had no idea that overseas nurses were being recruited in despicable ways.

If you remember the Long Island case from 2017, Sentosa Services recruited Philippine nurses and a respiratory therapist to work in New York. Their employment contracts included a provision that they would pay $25,000 in damages if they left before completing a year of employment. The employment contracts also contained many provisions which were not met – wages, shifts, patient population, working conditions, housing, etc. When the nurses tried to resign their positions, they were threatened with criminal charges, a civil lawsuit, and a complaint to the New York nursing board. Sentosa accused them of patient abandonment, patient endangerment, and breach of contract with damages. They failed on all fronts. The appellate court granted a writ of prohibition to stop the criminal prosecution on the basis that such prosecution violated the 1^st, 13^th, and 14^th amendments; the county supreme court dismissed the civil lawsuits; and the nursing board found that there was no basis to charge the nurses with professional misconduct.

The nurses fought back, bringing a class action suit against Sentosa for damages and for human trafficking. And they won. Last summer, a U.S. district judge ruled that they are entitled to $1.56 million dollars plus interest. A jury will decide if they are also entitled to punitive damages.

We generally think of human trafficking in terms of the sex trade, but it is important to see it with labor as well. In fact, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) which makes human trafficking a federal crime, specifically notes that, “Trafficking in persons is not limited to the sex industry. This growing transnational crime also includes forced labor and involves significant violations of labor, public health, and human rights standards worldwide.”

Despite the warning the Sentosa case should have provided, it seems the practice remains alive and well. Recently, another recruiting firm, this time in Ohio, has repeated Sentosa’s mistake. Health Carousel is accused of violating forced labor law for engaging in the same unethical practices in violating human trafficking law. And again, it involves Philippine nurses and respiratory therapists.

Read the Sentosa cases and the Health Carousel complaint. You don’t need to be a lawyer to understand how wrong this violation of federal law is and be outraged by it. Let’s support our professional colleagues in their fight against human trafficking, fraud, racketeering, and indentured servitude. Consider being an ally by joining the Philippine Nurses Association as an affiliate member, or by making a donation to the Philippine Nurses Association of America Foundation (https://www.mypnaa.org/PNAAF). The Sentosa nurses prevailed, and I wish the Health Carousel nurses the same success. Staffing shortages should not be an opportunity to exploit nurses.