Labor sharks sink teeth into low-wage immigrant workers

When Ophelia Hernández, a 53-year-old clothing store owner from El Salvador, got working papers to immigrate to the United States, she jumped at the chance to escape the gang violence and extortionists who had forced her out of business in her native country. As she began her job search in New York, however, she came up against a different kind of extortion in the form of labor sharks. These predatory employment agencies exploit low-wage job seekers, many of whom are newly arrived or undocumented immigrants, by charging them exorbitant fees for jobs that pay less than the minimum wage — and sometimes don’t even exist.

Sitting in the small apartment in Queens that she shares with family members, Hernández recounted how she had to pay a $400 fee for a housecleaning job that lasted only two weeks and paid well below the legal minimum wage.

“I had to work more than 12 hours a day, six days a week, for just $200 after the fee was deducted,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. “After two weeks, the agency told me the woman who had been doing the job was coming back.” 

Today Hernández gets by looking after her relatives’ children — three toddlers and a 5-year-old. Her search for a more permanent job, one that pays a living wage, has been stymied by the labor sharks. “We can’t trust the agencies,” she said, “but it’s really hard to get any work without them.”

Under New York state law, only two classes of job seekers — manual laborers and domestic workers — may be charged a fee by employment agencies before being referred to an open position. Many workers who have been charged these up-front fees have found themselves, like Hernández, the victims of scams. Last month New York’s attorney general announced agreements with five agencies in the city to end predatory and abusive practices. Since this announcement, the Department of Consumer Affairs has issued subpoenas to 115 additional agencies and has begun investigations into 23. But to end the systemic issues that allow the abusive practices to flourish, advocacy groups for low-wage and immigrant workers say the law must be changed.

“Allowing the poorest workers to be charged advance fees makes no sense,” said Laura Huizar, an attorney with Latino Justice PRLDEF, a nonprofit civil rights organization. “It just creates an incentive for bad actors in the industry to exploit people.”

Under state law, agencies are supposed to refund any advance fees if the referral does not result in the applicant’s being hired. But a comprehensive 2012 survey conducted by New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), an advocacy group for immigrant workers in Queens, found that 81 percent of respondents, who were charged an average advance fee of $122, were not placed in jobs and did not have their fees refunded.

“Agencies will go to elaborate lengths to give job seekers the runaround,” said Jessica Garcia, NICE’s director of organizing and programs. “Many of our members report being sent to fake employers, to employers that had never contacted the agency or to employers who are not hiring.”

Rosa Pauta, a 50-year-old mother of three, paid $125 to an agency in Jackson Heights in exchange for a position at a laundromat. She said she was given a paper stipulating she would work 40 hours a week for $400. But when she showed up at the laundromat, there was no job opening.

“I called the agency three, four, maybe five times, but they didn’t pick up the phone,” Pauta said. When she returned to the agency the next day to get her money back, she said, “the woman told me I probably didn’t get the job because I was too old.” The agency refused to refund the fee.