Judge awards $1.56 million in nurse staffing class action lawsuit

June 03, 2021

A federal judge in New York this week ruled in a class action lawsuit that the recruitment firm Prompt Nursing Employment Agency LLC, trading as Sentosa Services, and the owner Berish Rubenstein in damages of $ 1.56 million plus interest for a breach of contract Group have to pay from nurses from the Philippines, according to court records.

Judge Nina Gershon held Prompt Nursing and Rubenstein liable for breach of contract in September 2019 because they had not paid the nursing staff a basic salary corresponding to the applicable wage. The judge also found that the company, Rubenstein and other defendants had violated the Law to Protect Victims of Human Trafficking.

Prompt Nursing brought the nurses from the Philippines to the US under a contract that would have billed the nurses $ 25,000.

In addition to the breach of contract, the judge ruled that the company, Rubenstein, and other defendants were held liable for $ 1.56 million plus interest for violating the Human Trafficking Victims Protection Act. However, class members can claim damages for breaches of contract or violations of the Human Trafficking Victims Protection Act, but not both.

The judge also did not decide in favor of punitive damages, but instead let the question go to court.

The Philippines Star reported that Rose Ann Paguirigan’s lawsuit, filed in March 2017, involved more than 200 nurses being recruited in the Philippines to work in New York care homes. Paguirigan was reported to have provided evidence that the nurses were not paid the wages promised in the employment contracts. In addition, she presented evidence that nursing homes and recruiters with serious threats of harm discouraged nurses from leaving the company, including the $ 25,000 termination fee.

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