Labor Dept. Fines Mortgage Banker Over Unpaid Immigrant Salaries

The U.S. Department of Labor announced fining The Home Mortgage Company of America Inc. and its president, Roland David, $84,000 in civil money penalties for illegal treatment of 14 nonimmigrant workers.

The Department said an investigation by its Wage and Hour Division determined that Home Mortgage and David willfully failed to pay the workers salaries required under federal law and that they willfully misrepresented workers’ job classifications in Labor Condition Applications, which are used to obtain employment status for workers under the H-1B program.

H-1B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act allow foreign nationals to be employed for a temporary period in “specialty occupations,” the Department said. Employers must pay H-1B workers wages based on what is paid to similarly employed U.S. workers and provide accurate specification of terms and conditions under which the workers will be employed, such as their job category.

The workers recruited by the president and Home Mortgage, a Hamburg, N.J.-based mortgage banker that reportedly specializes in restructuring loans for homeowners in mortgage default or with credit problems, on their visits to the United States as tourists from the Philippines.

In addition to the civil money penalty, the Department is demanding that the mortgage lender and its leader pay the employees a total of $513,037 in back wages. The total was derived from September 2001 through January 2004 as workers hired during different periods in this time frame were paid weekly wages of $350 to $500 when, by law, based on the positions the workers were hired for, the amounts should have been $600 to $1,000, according to Department spokeswoman Leni Uddyback.

“We paid the employees what was agreed on,” David told MortgageDaily.com.

The positions encompassed a variety of jobs such as computer technician, and mortgage processing and analyzing jobs, he said, and he pointed out he and the company have never been involved in such a situation and haven’t misrepresented anybody.

“We pay them their weekly salary and accommodations,” he added. The workers “said we treated them wrong, and that’s wrong — they are housed in fully-furnished apartments and townhomes and we pay for their utilities. We’ve treated them well. They live better than I do.”

Due to the alleged willful violations, the Department said it is also taking steps to block the accused from sponsoring additional foreign workers for employment within the country.

Home Mortgage and David were notified of the enforcement actions in a determination letter delivered on Aug. 6 by the Wage and Hour Division, which also informed of their right to request a hearing if they believed the determination is in error.

David said he and the company have appealed the determination and requested a hearing, which has been scheduled for January 2005 in New York.