SEVENTEEN construction workers have filed a second amended complaint against RNV Construction and its affiliates in federal court.
The original lawsuit was filed on Sept. 22, 2023. RNV Construction denied the allegations and filed an opposition to the original complaint.
Attorneys Colin Thompson and Aaron Halegua represented the initial plaintiffs: Prospero Armia, Nemencio De Leon, Giovan Malazarte, Ian Alcoseba, Ranie Celestial, Rudy Naraja, Victor Fraginal, Reymar Pineda, Jerry Tortor, Jerry Valles and Edmar Yangyang.
The second amended complaint named Salvador Pura, Benedicto Vintero, Eduardo Buan, Tyrone Garon, Julius Fabiana and Arman Rebusora as plaintiffs who are also represented by Halegua and Thompson.
The amended complaint states that RNV Construction has a contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency totaling over $88 million.
The complaint alleged claims of forced labor under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act or TVPRA; wage and hour violations and unlawful retaliation under the Fair Labor Standards Act; and a range of claims under CNMI law.
In a statement, Halegua said: “Unfortunately, forced labor and other abusive practices are all too common in the disaster recovery industry — and foreign and undocumented workers are among the most vulnerable groups. The TVPRA offers one helpful path towards recourse for victims of such practices in the United States.”
The lawsuit named as defendants RNV Construction and its affiliates: Ruel Villacrusis and his relatives Jane and Michelle Rueda, who are alleged to have controlled the entities while the plaintiffs were employed there; and Sherwin Resurreccion, an employee alleged to have participated in the surveillance of and retaliation against the plaintiffs after they filed their initial complaint.
According to the complaint, the defendants received contracts from FEMA worth at least $88 million to do restoration work in Saipan following Super Typhoon Yutu and relied heavily upon guest workers from the Philippines to perform those contracts.
The plaintiffs, who are all Filipino nationals, came to Saipan to work for the defendants “based on promises of fair compensation, free housing, food, and medical care, and humane working conditions.”
However, when they arrived on Saipan, the defendants made deductions from the workers’ paychecks for housing and food and often denied them medical care, the complaint stated.
The housing provided by the defendants was “unsanitary and inadequate: up to seven workers shared a single room; there was no hot water; dogs, cats, and rats entered the barracks and defecated on the floor; and cockroaches infested the kitchen cabinets,” the complaint stated.
When the plaintiffs inquired about the terms of their contracts, the defendants told them that the promises in their contracts were just a “formality” to get their work visas, the complaint stated.
It added that the plaintiffs were subjected to forced labor because the RNV defendants “engaged in a pattern of intimidation and coercion to compel plaintiffs to continue working under these conditions.”
The plaintiffs also alleged that when they inquired about the illegal deductions from their paychecks, the defendants threatened to not renew their visas and to send the plaintiffs back to Philippines at their own cost.
“Ruel Villacrusis intimidated plaintiffs by telling them that complaining to the labor authorities would be futile,” the complaint stated.
“Defendants also instructed two plaintiffs to lie to immigration authorities about the conditions of their employment and then terminated them for telling the truth to these authorities,” the complaint added.
According to the plaintiffs, the defendants “failed to comply with provisions of their FEMA contracts, the regulations governing guest workers in the CNMI, and local CNMI laws.”
“For instance, to get around FEMA’s requirement that contractors only employ individuals with work authorization on FEMA projects, defendants arranged for workers with expired visas to be hired by a local manpower agency and then dispatched to work on RNV’s projects,” the complaint stated.
The complaint also alleged that the defendants “failed to pay the prevailing wage for the types of work plaintiffs performed; made deductions from plaintiffs’ wages that were not in their contracts; and made plaintiffs pay for visa and/or travel costs tied to their employment.”
The plaintiffs said the defendants “illegally retaliated against them for filing a complaint with the CNMI Department of Labor, and later for filing this lawsuit.”
The defendants “threatened to have plaintiffs deported, blacklisted them from finding other work in Saipan, and conducted surveillance of their activities in an effort to intimidate them,” the complaint stated.
‘RNV did nothing wrong’
When asked for comment, RNV Construction’s lawyer, Michael Dotts, issued the following statement:
“This case was filed in September 2023. The original plaintiffs, through their attorneys, said that they wanted more time to find and add plaintiffs and more claims, and RNV agreed. RNV said, ‘Bring it on.’ There were no valid claims, and if these plaintiffs and their attorney wanted to waste their time, RNV had no objection.
“The plaintiffs found a few more employees to join the case and added some salacious and false claims about ‘human trafficking’ about a year later, but still wanted more time. RNV’s response was, ‘Go for it.’ RNV knows the claims are false, and by giving them time, RNV had no risk.
“The plaintiffs have now found a few more employees, and RNV has stipulated and agreed to allow them to join the case. RNV has over 150 employees, and with that many employees, there will always be a few with complaints. Here, the evidence will show that false promises of easy money were made to the plaintiffs if they would join the lawsuit, and even promises of green cards were made to them. Greed is the motivation of this small group.
“People often complain about bad employers. But what about bad employees? The lawsuit is a shakedown by a few bad employees, and what is alleged is false. There will be a jury trial, and the truth will come out. RNV did nothing wrong and denies the allegations.”
