'Sentosa' nurses lose illegal recruitment case at DoJ
The Filipino health workers recruited to New York by Sentosa suffered a third blow in their long drawn legal battle against their recruitment agency in the Philippines and its counterpart in the US after the Department of Justice (DoJ) junked on Monday their complaint for illegal recruitment.
Senior state prosecutor Doris S. Alejo said in a seven-page decision that the department found no substantive alterations in the employment contracts the nurses signed before their deployment that would support their allegations against officials of the Sentosa Recruitment Agency in the Philippines and the Sentosa Care LLC of New York City.
Thirteen Filipino nurses accused Sentosa officials Bent Philipson, Francis Luyun, and Oliva Serduar in June 2006 for violating the Labor Code for furnishing and publishing false notice or information or document related to their employment as well as substituting or altering employment contracts initially approved and verified by the Labor department.
The nurses previously lost similar cases filed with the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) and the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), both under the Department of Labor and Employment.
Ironically, New York's education and health departments have come come up with findings supportive of the Filipino nurses' argument that they did not abandon their wards when they quit and that they did not endanger the lives of residents of Avalon Gardens.
In September last year, the POEA dismissed for lack of merit the nurses’ illegal recruitment case and, last January, the NLRC threw out a similar case involving illegal dismissal, nonpayment and underpayment of salaries and other money claims.
The DoJ ruling said the nurses’ complaint “may warrant an action which is civil in nature, but definitely not a criminal action."
Ten 10 Filipino nurses belonging to the so-called ‘Sentosa 27’ still face criminal and civil charges before a New York district for allegedly endangering the lives of their patients when they resigned en masse in April 2006 in protest over unjust working conditions and labor malpractices in a New York health care center.
The 10 were part of a group of 26 Filipino nurses and a physical therapist (Sentosa 27) who claimed that their local recruiter, Sentosa Recruitment Agency (SRA), was guilty of violating human trafficking laws, and involuntary servitude.
Following their walkout from the pediatric ventilation unit of Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in April 2006, Sentosa's New York agency slapped them with criminal charges for allegedly endangering the lives of the terminally ill children they were looking after.
Facing trial are Elmer Jacinto, Juliet Anilao, Harriet Avila, Mark dela Cruz, Claudine Gamiao, Jennifer Lampa, Rizza Maulion, James Millena, Ma. Theresa Ramos, and Ranier Sichon, and their lawyer, Felix Vinluan.
Trial was supposed to have started last January 28 but the Suffolk district court reset it to April 28.
Earlier this month, Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr urged the government to extend legal assistance to the Filipino nurses.
The government extended $25,000 in legal assistance to the ‘Sentosa 27’ last November. The Department of Foreign Affairs acknowledged that the amount was “not too much" to help the Filipinos’ legal battle, but it was just what the agency could afford to shell out.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr said Filipinos on death row in various countries are given priority in the agency’s legal fund. - Mark J. Ubalde, GMANews.TV
Senior state prosecutor Doris S. Alejo said in a seven-page decision that the department found no substantive alterations in the employment contracts the nurses signed before their deployment that would support their allegations against officials of the Sentosa Recruitment Agency in the Philippines and the Sentosa Care LLC of New York City.
Thirteen Filipino nurses accused Sentosa officials Bent Philipson, Francis Luyun, and Oliva Serduar in June 2006 for violating the Labor Code for furnishing and publishing false notice or information or document related to their employment as well as substituting or altering employment contracts initially approved and verified by the Labor department.
The nurses previously lost similar cases filed with the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) and the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), both under the Department of Labor and Employment.
Ironically, New York's education and health departments have come come up with findings supportive of the Filipino nurses' argument that they did not abandon their wards when they quit and that they did not endanger the lives of residents of Avalon Gardens.
In September last year, the POEA dismissed for lack of merit the nurses’ illegal recruitment case and, last January, the NLRC threw out a similar case involving illegal dismissal, nonpayment and underpayment of salaries and other money claims.
The DoJ ruling said the nurses’ complaint “may warrant an action which is civil in nature, but definitely not a criminal action."
Ten 10 Filipino nurses belonging to the so-called ‘Sentosa 27’ still face criminal and civil charges before a New York district for allegedly endangering the lives of their patients when they resigned en masse in April 2006 in protest over unjust working conditions and labor malpractices in a New York health care center.
The 10 were part of a group of 26 Filipino nurses and a physical therapist (Sentosa 27) who claimed that their local recruiter, Sentosa Recruitment Agency (SRA), was guilty of violating human trafficking laws, and involuntary servitude.
Following their walkout from the pediatric ventilation unit of Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in April 2006, Sentosa's New York agency slapped them with criminal charges for allegedly endangering the lives of the terminally ill children they were looking after.
Facing trial are Elmer Jacinto, Juliet Anilao, Harriet Avila, Mark dela Cruz, Claudine Gamiao, Jennifer Lampa, Rizza Maulion, James Millena, Ma. Theresa Ramos, and Ranier Sichon, and their lawyer, Felix Vinluan.
Trial was supposed to have started last January 28 but the Suffolk district court reset it to April 28.
Earlier this month, Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr urged the government to extend legal assistance to the Filipino nurses.
The government extended $25,000 in legal assistance to the ‘Sentosa 27’ last November. The Department of Foreign Affairs acknowledged that the amount was “not too much" to help the Filipinos’ legal battle, but it was just what the agency could afford to shell out.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr said Filipinos on death row in various countries are given priority in the agency’s legal fund. - Mark J. Ubalde, GMANews.TV
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