Okla. Holiday Inn, Hampton Workers File Trafficking Class Action Lawsuit

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

A group of J-1 visa holders hit a worker recruiting company, Apex USA, with a class action lawsuit alleging the company tricked them out of substantial fees by promising well-paying work at hotels and restaurants in the U.S., but then cut their wages and hours and would not let them leave turning to physical intimidation.

The visa holders hit Apex, a Holiday Inn Express, a Hampton Inn and others with a worker trafficking class action lawsuit over allegations that the companies owned and operated by Walter Schumacher and Carolyn Schumacher misrepresented the program and pay and required workers to go into substantial debt to the company.

“Defendants’ overseas recruiting agents defrauded plaintiffs and other putative class members throughout the recruitment process, inducing them to pay substantial fees for recruitment, immigration processing and travel with promises of full-time, good-paying jobs and suitable housing,” alleges the worker trafficking class action lawsuit.

“After plaintiffs and the putative class members arrived in Oklahoma, defendants caused them to believe that if they did not work exclusively for defendants, they would suffer abuse of the legal process and serious financial and reputational harms.”

Apex USA operates as a J-1 visa sponsor. This allows them to recruit workers from overseas to work for two hotels, a Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn, as well as a steakhouse the company also owns.

One plaintiff alleges in the worker trafficking class action lawsuit that she was promised a 40 to 60-hour work week and hourly pay at a job fair in her home country. However, she says that when she arrived, at significant cost in fees to Apex to sponsor her visa, she found the work did not pay as well as promised, failing to even meet minimum wage standards.

According to the worker trafficking class action lawsuit, when these employees attempted to quit after finding they could not meet their financial goals, they were physically threatened by Walter Schumacher, an owner of Apex USA.

They say the owners also threatened them with deportation or a report to the police if they attempted to quit or even complained about their low pay.

The worker trafficking class action lawsuit alleges that due to the low wages and poor working and living conditions, the employees were often left indebted to the very company that promised them work in the United States under the J-1 visa program.

According to the worker trafficking class action lawsuit, Apex USA violated federal trafficking laws. The plaintiffs are seeking damages, including restitution and punitive damages on behalf of current and former J-1 visa holders sponsored by Apex USA.

The lead plaintiffs and proposed Class are represented by Brady R. Henderson of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, Carol Vigne of Legal Aid at Work, Christopher J. Willett, Caitlin Boehne and Rebecca Eisenbrey of the Equal Justice Center, and pro bono lawyers Eben Colby, Catherine Fisher and Isaac Saidel­Goley.

The Worker Trafficking Class Action Lawsuit is Francis, et al. v. Apex USA Inc., et al., Case No. 5:18-­cv­00583, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

UPDATE: On Feb. 5, 2019, owners of a Holiday Inn Express and a Hampton Inn in Oklahoma lost their bid to dismiss a class action lawsuit claiming that they improperly lured workers with J-1 exchange visitor visas.