FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Justine Lisser

April 20, 2011 Christine Nazer

Tel. (202) 663-4773
TTY: (202) 663-4912

EEOC COMBATS LABOR TRAFFICKING, SEVERE ABUSE

AND DISCRIMINATION IN LAWSUITS FILED TODAY
Thai Farm Workers Trafficked to Hawaii and Washington, Indian Welders to
Mississippi and Texas, Subjected to Intolerable Conditions, Commission Alleges

WASHINGTON—A labor broker in California, farms in Hawaii and Washington, and a marine
services company in Mississippi and Texas subjected foreign workers to severe abuse and
discrimination after they were trafficked into this country, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission alleged in three lawsuits filed today. These lawsuits follow a Commission meeting, held
Jan. 19, 2011, on the issue of human trafficking and forced labor.

“The mistreatment of workers alleged in these cases is intolerable in our legal system,” said
Jacqueline A. Berrien, Chair of the EEOC. “These lawsuits highlight the critically important role that
the EEOC must play in protecting the rights of victims of labor trafficking.”

The EEOC’s Los Angeles district office filed suit in Hawaii (Civ. No. CV-11-00257-DAE-
RLP) against Global Horizons, the labor broker, and six farms there; and a separate suit filed in
Washington (Civ. No. 2:11-cv-03045-EFS), against Global Horizons and two farms in that state,
alleging that Global brought more than 200 Thai men into the country to work as farm workers on the
promises of high-paying wages and temporary visas. Once in the country, the workers had their
passports confiscated and were threatened with deportation if they complained. They were employed
on the eight farms named in the two lawsuits, where they received low wages—far less than promised,
forced into vermin-ridden housing, denied the opportunity to leave the premises, and subjected to
harassment, including physical assaults, by their overseers. Further, the workers had to pay large
sums to Global as recruitment fees, putting them and their families back in Thailand severely in debt,
making it impossible for them to leave, even had they been permitted to.

In a separate suit, the Birmingham, Ala., office of the EEOC filed suit in Mississippi charging
that Signal International, a marine services company with facilities along the Gulf Coast, subjected at
least 500 Indian welders and pipe-fitters at its Mississippi and Texas locations to segregated facilities
and discriminatory terms and conditions of employment. These workers, brought into the country by a
separate entity not part of the lawsuit, were forced to live in Signal’s substandard, unsanitary

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accommodations, for which they were charged an inordinate amount, given unwholesome food,
demeaned by being referred to by numbers instead of their names, and at least two of them were
retaliated against for complaining about the substandard conditions and discrimination.

“The EEOC is committed to the protection of all workers. The lawsuits we have filed today
seek to remedy systemic discriminatory practices against a particularly vulnerable class of workers,”
said P. David Lopez, General Counsel of the EEOC. “When necessary, the EEOC will file such cases
to protect victims of discrimination and ensure all workplaces comply with the law.”

All three lawsuits were brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits
discrimination on the basis of race and national origin as well as retaliation. The EEOC filed suit in
each instance after attempting to resolve the matter through settlement. In all, the Commission will
seek back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future
discrimination.

The EEOC enforces the federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More
information about the EEOC is available on its website, www.eeoc.gov.