H-1B Teachers Ripped Off

Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 5:35 PM

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Prevailing salaries don't mean a thing if this kind of extortion is
allowed
to continue. The Dept. of Labor has no way to track the salaries of
H-1Bs
once they are hired so the only way employers can get caught is if they
are
reported. These H-1B teachers decided to do just that.

........................

Fifteen teachers from India accuse company of extorting money

The Associated Press
5/12/02 6:13 PM

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Teachers from India are challenging a contract
allowing the agency that sponsored their visas to garnish a quarter of
their wages for three years.

Fifteen teachers are seeking to invalidate a Dec. 3 contract with the
Teacher's Placement Group, a Long Island, N.Y. recruiting agency. They
have
asked the Newark Teachers Union to intervene.

The teachers said the recruiting agency's founder, Michael Vanjani,
threatened to revoke their visas and put them "on the next flight to
India"
if they did not sign the contract.

"We felt cheated that we are educators and he is trying to extort money
from us," teacher Alam Noor told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Vanjani said he did nothing illegal and provided The Star-Ledger with
the
first of two contracts signed by the teachers in India.

That document, signed June 27, said nothing about the teachers turning
over
25 percent of their gross earnings for the next three years -- about $1
million. But it specified there would be a later contract to sign.

"We are dealing with the Newark Public Schools, not some candy store,"
Vanjani said. "Where would we get to if we lied or did something
illegal?"

Most of the teachers had sold their houses in India and moved their
families by the time they saw the December contract.

They paid Vanjani about $145,000 before they asked the school district
to
stop forwarding the money last week.

The teachers came to the United States on H-1B visas, which require
their
employers to pay the prevailing wage or actual rate paid to anyone else
in
the same employment.

Cyrus Mehta, a New York City immigration attorney, said "by demanding a
25
percent kickback, this employer is in violation of the H-1B law. He is
by
de facto reducing the required rate that has to be paid to them."

Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, said the contract "definitely would seem to be a labor
violation."
He said the INS would investigate.

The U.S. Department of Labor can impose sanctions against employers who
violate H-1B visas, including fines, suspension from the visa program
and
criminal charges.

Vanjani also has sued seven Indian teachers he recruited for Baltimore
schools for failure to pay service charges. That case is in U.S.
District
Court in Maryland.

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