Press Release

Federal labor complaint issues against health care company over coercive “stay-or-pay” clauses imposed on Filipino nurses

CINCINNATI, OHIO — Yesterday, the Cincinnati Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 9 issued a formal Complaint against CommuniCare, a health care company that requires nurses recruited from the Philippines to sign employment contracts with steep financial penalties if the nurses leave their jobs. The NLRB’s Cincinnati Office alleges that the “stay-or-pay" clauses — and CommuniCare's lawsuits to enforce them — violate federal labor law. The Complaint also charges CommuniCare with imposing multiple illegal work rules on its nurses, including prohibitions on public criticism of the company and discussion of employee matters with outsiders. The Complaint is the result of a lengthy investigation by the NLRB Cincinnati Regional Director into unfair labor practice charges filed by a group of former CommuniCare nurses.

“We are encouraged that the NLRB has found merit in the nurses’ charges, and has issued a formal Complaint to vindicate them. This Complaint reflects the General Counsel’s enforcement initiative against stay-or-pay clauses like those in CommuniCare’s employment contracts, demonstrating the coercive, unfair, and unlawful nature of such provisions,” said Elizabeth Koo, Senior Counsel at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), which is representing the nurses. “CommuniCare’s practices follow a clear pattern we have seen in other states around the country, where health care companies compel nurses recruited from countries like the Philippines to sign contracts with stay-or-pay clauses that trap them into jobs despite harmful work conditions. Other companies should know they’re on notice.”

Based in Ohio, CommuniCare operates in seven states. The nurses in this case worked at locations in Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Facing onerous patient caseloads and chronic short-staffing throughout their time at CommuniCare, the nurses finally resigned, citing the harm to their physical and mental health. CommuniCare then sued the nurses in state court demanding thousands of dollars in penalties for leaving their jobs. The nurses have challenged these repressive contract conditions as a form of indentured servitude in violation of federal law.

In a statement announcing the Complaint, the NLRB’s Regional Director Eric Taylor said, “The employer’s conduct against these workers demonstrate it is making an example out of the employees to coerce similarly situated nurses into staying . . . This attempt to lock employees in their jobs severely interferes with their ability to exercise their labor rights and is thus unlawful under the [National Labor Relations] Act.”

The NLRB noted that it has entered into memoranda of understanding with the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to advance “a whole of government approach” to address the anticompetitive effects of restrictions on workers’ mobility.

“These brave nurses stood up for themselves and their patients when they filed their complaints protesting the deplorable working conditions and coercive employment contracts imposed by their employer,” said Randi Weingarten, President at American Federation of Teachers. "The AFT applauds the NLRB’s efforts to ban these agreements that force workers to continue working in dangerous conditions with unsafe staffing ratios that damage patient care. This is another example of why the AFT launched our Code Red campaign to address the dangers of understaffed hospitals and combat the corporate greed that drives these dangerous and unethical practices.”

AALDEF’s efforts are supported by the AFT, the nation’s fastest growing nurses union. Murphy Anderson PLLC, and Herzfeld, Suetholz, Gastel, Leniski & Wall PLLC are representing the nurses in the case. AALDEF and Murphy Anderson are representing other Filipino immigrant nurses suffering from similar contracts and harmful working conditions in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

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AALDEF Media

Stuart J. Sia
Communications Director
212.966.5932 x203
media@aaldef.org