Filipino Oilfield Workers in Louisiana Complain of Abuse

A Louisiana oilfield maintenance company is being accused of exploiting trafficked Filipino workers who say they were lured here by lies, and they are instead treated like slaves, reports wwltv.com Eyewitness News. They were allegedly promised salaries of $20 an hour, but when their paychecks arrived they amounted to a fraction of that, sometimes little more than $3 an hour. The workers left the Philippines to find work overseas and landed at Grand Isle Shipyard, a regional oilfield maintenance company in Galliano.

The workers point to 18-hour workdays, sometimes up to 400 hours a month for measly pay. Some say they  slept in a retro-fitted storage container, their passports held by their employer. The WWL-TV investigation uncovered what appears to be a system of human trafficking, with immigration paperwork allegedly based on lies, and workers holding numerous and fake social security numbers. There were a number of apparent violations found, from immigration policies to labor and workplace standards.