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A judge has approved a $1.56 million class action settlement over claims Prompt Nursing Employment Agency LLC and other defendants breached their contract with a group of Filipino nurses and violated trafficking laws.
The lead plaintiff, Rose Ann P., had alleged Prompt Nursing Employment Agency, doing business as Sentosa Services, breached workers’ contracts by failing to pay the nurses a base salary in line with the prevailing wage.
In addition, Rose Ann had alleged, the nurses were required to work in unsafe conditions with insufficient staffing, according to The Philippines Star.
They also allegedly faced threats as their recruiters attempted to stop them from leaving, a tactic prohibited by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, according to the Star.
The class action, filed in March 2017, involved more than 200 nurses who were recruited in the Philippines to work in New York nursing homes, according to a Staffing Industry Analysts report.
Judge Nina Gershon in September 2019 had found Prompt Nursing had indeed breached its contractual obligations and violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, Staffing Industry Analysts reported.
Judge Gershon ruled the nursing home owners Benjamin Landa and Bent Philipson were personally liable for the trafficking violations, according to The Star.
However, in her recent approval of the settlement, Judge Gershon state the plaintiffs must present their request for punitive damages to a jury.
The defendants had filed a motion to decertify the Class, but Judge Gershon denied their request.
Though a court may decertify a Class before judgment is final, she wrote, it can’t disturb previous findings without a significant event or compelling reason.
“Here, I have already found the basis for defendants’ untimely application to decertify the class — their claim that they are entitled to offset damages with overtime payments — meritless.”
Are you a nurse who has worked through Prompt Nursing? What do you think of the settlement? Let us know in the comment section below.
The plaintiff is represented by Leandro Bolesa Lachica and John J.P. Howley of the Howley Law Firm.
The Prompt Nursing Class Action Lawsuit is Rose Ann P., et al. v. Prompt Nursing Employment Agency LLC, et al., 1:17-cv-01302, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
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