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NEW YORK CITY: A US medical staffing firm has been
charged with
violating a foreign labor program after it allegedly owed almost
$3-million back wages to its Filipino workers, the US Department of
Labor said.
The New York-based Advanced
Professional Marketing Inc. and its president, Marissa Beck, were
charged by the department with violating provisions of an
immigration law that authorized employers to bring non-immigrant
workers into the United States under the H-1B program.
An investigation found that 156
H-1B guest workers from the Philippines were owed almost $3 million
in back wages, the department said in a statement. The company
employed the H-1B workers primarily as physical therapists in
hospitals and other medical facilities in the New York metropolitan
area.
The labor department sent a
“determination letter” enumerating the results of the probe on
March 11, assessing penalties totaling $512,000 for the alleged
violations by the company.
It also directed the company and
Beck to return the owed wages to the workers.
The duo could request a hearing
on the issue before a US Labor Department administrative law judge
within 15 days, the statement said.
The H-1B program permits
employers to temporarily hire foreign workers for jobs in the United
States in professional occupations such as computer programmers,
engineers, physicians, and teachers.
H-1B workers must be paid at
least the same wage rates as are paid to US workers who perform the
same types of work or the prevailing wages in the areas of intended
employment.
--AFP
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