AG sues Boca firm in ‘deceptive employment’ case

By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR

Acting on a complaint from the Filipino Consulate, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has filed a lawsuit against a Miami employment service and two Boca Raton business owners and their company, alleging they advertised full-time employment and free housing, but did not provide the advertised employment, McCollum’s office said in a news release.

The complaint also alleges the individuals involved took away the workers’ passports and return tickets.

McCollum identified the individuals as Sophia Manuel and Alfonso Baldonado of Boca Raton, and their company, Quality Staffing Services Corporation. Workforce Solutions USA, Inc. of Miami was also named in the lawsuit for alleged deceptive employment of temporary overseas workers from the Philippines.

The Boca Raton News called Quality Staffing Services a number of times, but the line was always busy.

Under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, the attorney general is seeking penalties of $10,000 per violation, the dissolution of Quality Staffing Services Corp. and DAR Workforce Solutions USA, and injunctions against the companies and their owners prohibiting them from engaging in any business activity or operations offering, soliciting, providing or otherwise dealing in or related to the employment of temporary workers.

“These people [Filipinos] came to Florida believing they would have a chance at the American dream of earning a decent wage to provide for their families,” McCollum said in the news release.  “Instead, they were trapped in low-wage positions and have had to depend upon handouts from friends to survive because of the apparently deceptive manner in which they were recruited.”

The lawsuit alleges the defendants made arrangements for at least 13 and possibly as many as 50 Filipino workers to be employed full-time in food service at a Boca Raton country club from the fall of 2007 through July 1, 2008.

McCollum’s suit claims the defendants received thousands of dollars in fees from the responding workers who were promised free housing plus wages as part of their contracts. However, the workers discovered upon arrival that they did not have jobs at the country club and instead were sent to work part-time for $6.67 an hour at various clubs throughout Palm Beach and Dade counties.

In addition, McCollum said, the complaint alleges the “free housing” provided for the workers consisted of a 3-bedroom house for 25 to 30 people, many of whom had to sleep on floors and even in the garage.

The workers’ passports were allegedly confiscated, said the attorney general.  He also said that despite a court order requiring Sophia Manuel to turn the passports over to the Filipino Consulate, she refused to do so.

In light of this refusal, which McCollum said equates to contempt of a civil court, possible law enforcement action may be necessary.

McCollum’s suit also names the Boca Woods Country Club Association, Inc. and the Boca Woods Property Owners’ Association, Inc. as the owners of the Boca Woods Country Club in
Boca Raton.

A woman who answered the phone at Boca Woods Country Club told the Boca Raton News, “On advice of comment, we are making no comment about pending litigation.”  When asked to give her name, the woman refused.