Embassy vows to aid Pinoy Teachers in PG

Filipino teachers from Maryland meet July 8 with Philippine Embassy officials - Consul General Domingo Nolasco, Atty. Loy Cortel and Labor Attache' Luzviminda Padilla - to discuss their problem with PG County Schools. The Filipino teachers' representatives were Jun Ballano, Jennifer Tordecilla, Rosemarie Taguba, Marlyn Barres, Carlo Parapara, Perla Alega, Evelyn fabio, Maricris Verbano, Helen Eurolfan and Millet Panga. A meeting to address their issue is scheduled July 14, 5:30 p.m., at the Multi Cultural Center, Oxon Hill, Maryland.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Philippine embassy officials have vowed to help hundreds of Filipino teachers in Prince George’s county who might lose their jobs after the Department of Labor reaffirmed its earlier decision that the Prince George’s County Public Schools violated US labor laws and banned it from hiring new teachers and renewing visas of Filipino teachers.

Consul General Domingo Nolasco and and Labor Attaché Luzviminda Padilla July 8 met with a group of Filipino teachers and told them the embassy will help them make representations with appropriate US government agencies regarding their case.

The DOL reaffirmed an earlier finding that the PGCPS willfully violated H-1B visa rules by requiring an estimated 800 Filipino teachers to pay visa and other fees that should have been shouldered by the school system. The PGCPS has already agreed to pay back $4.2 million in back wages to the teachers.

The decision does not affect about 600 Filipino teachers in the Baltimore Public School System, also in Maryland who were subjected to the same hiring practices that got PGCPS into trouble. The BPSS has reportedly avoided a similar fate by quietly paying back the recruitment fees that were illegally collected from the teachers.

“Workers hired under the H-1B program must be paid at least the same wage rates and benefits as those paid to U.S. workers doing the same job in the same area, so that the wages of similarly employed U.S. workers are not adversely affected,” DOL said.

Nolasco and Padilla said that as part of the Philippine government’s mandate to protect Filipinos abroad and promote their welfare, the Embassy would assist the affected teachers in making representations with appropriate U.S. government agencies.

The embassy said it will also organize a forum to bring together all relevant parties and explain all possible options, so the teachers can make an informed judgment on the proper course of action they have to take.

The DOL reaffirmed an earlier finding that the PGCPS willfully violated H-1B visa rules by requiring an estimated 800 Filipino teachers to pay visa and other fees that should have been shouldered by the school system. The PGCPS has already agreed to pay back $4.2 million in back wages to the teachers.

Both the PGCPS and Filipino teachers appealed the DOL’s findings with many of the mentors saying they paid the fees voluntarily and were more concerned about keeping their jobs.

A majority of them have been working in the Prince George ‘s public schools for the past 4-5 years, with a smaller number who arrived last year and presumably, were still working off the expenses of resettling in Maryland.

“Under the statute governing the H-1B program,” the DOL statement read, “willful wage violations are subject to a debarment period of at least two years. Violations are willful when an employer knew or acted in reckless disregard for whether its actions were impermissible.”

“Due to the willful nature of some of the violations, PGCPS also has agreed to pay $100,000 in civil money penalties and to be debarred for two years from filing new petitions, requests for extensions or requests for permanent residency for foreign workers under any employment-based visa program,” the statement read further.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis stressed that “the Labor Department has the responsibility for ensuring that employers who use the H-1B program follow the law and do not place U.S. workers at a disadvantage to H-1B workers.”

The Filipino teachers vowed to challenge what they see as “unjust labor practices”, pointing out that they are being penalized for a wrong committed by their school employer.

“They will be performing a series of actions geared towards ultimately attaining what is most precious to them, which is keeping their jobs,” declared Maricris Urbano in a statement given to the Manila Mail.

The teachers have staged a “silent walk-through” at the PGCPS Board of Education office in Upper Marlboro, Maryland saying this was just the beginning. They are blaming the school system for “unfair terminations as they capriciously allowed working visas to expire.”

Urbano feared these developments would eventually lead to an exodus of Filipino teachers back to the Philippines.

The Filipino teachers have also hastily organized a town hall meeting with visiting Philippine Congressman Erin Tanada at the Philippine Multicultural Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland July 8.

If the DOL decision is upheld – it still has to be approved by an administrative law judge – only a handful of Filipino teachers may survive the cut and retain teaching jobs in Prince George ‘s county.

They belong mostly to the first batch of mentors recruited in the Philippines in 2003-2004 and who’ve gained legal permanent residency status or the so-called “green card”.

Maryland schools sought teachers from the Philippines to fill vacancies and help meet federally-mandated “No Child Left Behind” standards imposed by former President George W. Bush.