"crab mentality"—the tendency of Filipino immigrants to pull each other down, like crab struggling to escape from a basket.
- From: ggg <goodgutgut@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 22:21:37 GMT
Undocumented Filipino workers speak out against exploitation by Filipino employers
By Anthony D. Advincula, Filipino Express, 17 August 2003. English Language.
When Carol Reyes* left the Philippines amid an uprising that toppled former President Joseph Estrada’s administration two years ago, none of the many stories she had heard about undocumented Filipino workers exploited by their Filipino employers in New York prepared her for the hardships that she would face.
But then came a realization that those stories were true. Holding a tourist visa, Reyes, 29, landed an all-around live-in job for a moving business owned by a Filipino-Chinese man in Brooklyn. Her employer verbally abused her constantly even in front of coworkers and clients, and treated her like a slave. She worked seven days a week and overtime, for $500 a month, a paycheck usually delayed by a week.
"For every mistake I did, no matter how little it could be, my former employer would call me names: like a whore or a daughter of a whore, or an idiot from a poverty-stricken island. I cooked every meal for him and his wife, mopped the floor of the house and the office, helped in the office work, but he gave me no respect. He wouldn't even allow me to use the phone and call my friends," Reyes said. "I felt I had lost my confidence, my dignity to all the defamation I got from him. My mother told me before I left the Philippines that I could make it in America because I'm a person full of perseverance. But I became the opposite."
In the Filipino community abuses of Filipino employers against undocumented Filipino
workers, like Reyes, are very much known, particularly in the blue-collar sector. Countless versions of such stories have been told and re-told, making it more
alarming for Filipinos to work for their fellow Filipino immigrants.
It often seems that Filipinos in a city such as New York would rather render services to an employer of another ethnicity than a Filipino who has a similar cultural background and could most likely speak Tagalog.
Advocacy groups say that workers' exploitation seems hardly abated because the victims are afraid to complain due to their immigration status and are unaware of workers' rights.
"Three out of 10 workers from low to middle-income class have complaints against abusive employers. Many of these workers would call our hotline, leave messages but would not give their names, addresses and return phone numbers, because they are afraid that their immigration status will be disclosed," said Gary Labao, program director of the Filipino Workers' Center (FWC), a socio-civic arm of the Queens-based Philippine
Forum. "But how can we help a person when we don't know who that person is? That
makes it more difficult for us if exploited workers won't reveal their identity."
Labao said exploitation is prevalent among Filipino domestic helpers, nannies, restaurant staff and manual-labor workers.
"We are here to build trust, address the workers' needs, and apply the laws protecting the undocumented. The first step is to call our hotline (1-700-DAMAYAN) or our office (1-718-565-8862) and we will act on what is necessary," he said.
Labao said that the use of immigration status to blackmail an undocumented is absolutely punishable by law. But it's very important for workers to know their rights so that they will not be vulnerable to abuse and discrimination.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), "it is unlawful to threaten to report, or to report a worker to INS because a worker opposed unlawful discrimination or participated in a proceeding under the anti-discrimination laws." If an employer appears to have acquired information about a worker's unauthorized work status after a complaint of discrimination, "the Commission will investigate whether the information was acquired through a retaliatory investigation."
These days, as part of FWC's educational programs, weekly forums and seminars in the New York area are being administered to Filipino and other ethnic workers. These programs aim to enhance workers' awareness of the laws that protect them and the benefits that they deserve.
Labao also said that for those workers who have already filed a formal lawsuit against an employer who has violated the law but who cannot afford a legal counsel, the FWC could assist them in finding a pro bono legal counsel.
To some undocumented Filipinos, however, reluctance to speak out is so overwhelming that federal employment discrimination laws could create a conflict with immigration laws.
Mariano Garcia*, 40, has never received a wage increase from his employer in four years as a cargo shipper because he is undocumented.
"With all the abuses and discrimination I have experienced over the years, I have opted to zip my mouth because I couldn't do anything about it," Garcia said. "I'm not legal to work in the United States."
As posted on its Web site, the EEOC, under the Federal Employment Discrimination Laws, states: "Enforcing the civil rights laws on behalf of all workers supports the enforcement of the immigration laws, principally the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). If employers were not held responsible for discriminating against unauthorized workers, it would create an incentive for unscrupulous employers to employ and exploit these workers. This would directly undermine the enforcement of the immigration laws by encouraging
the employment of unauthorized workers. It would also harm authorized workers who might be denied these jobs or be subjected to a workplace which tolerated discrimination."
EEOC further says that "the nation's federal employment discrimination laws ensure that [anyone]—regardless of race, color, sex or age, national origin, religion, disability and immigration status—working in this country be treated fairly and justly under the laws, and be afforded appropriate protection and redress should an employer violate these laws."
A number of Filipino workers, nonetheless, are confused over the effect on their complaints of the Executive Order 34 that was approved recently by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, allowing city employees, including police officers, to ask immigrants their status when applying for federal benefits or playing a vital role to solve a crime.
"If I will be filing a discrimination suit or any work-related charges with a government agency, and I'm undocumented, can Bloomberg's Executive Order 34 be applied to me?" said Reynaldo Mendoza*, a Filipino waiter in Queens. Mendoza, 36, said that he and a score of other Filipino waiters in a restaurant owned by a Filipino businessman are only receiving $2 an hour.
The reason of the employer, he said, is that they will get more from the tip of the customers. But on the average, they get $7 or less each after they divided the total tip at the end of the day.
"When counseling an individual who contacts us about a discrimination problem or who files a charge of discrimination, the EEOC will not inquire into a worker's immigration status and will not consider a worker's immigration status when examining the allegations raised in any charge of discrimination," Nancy P. Boyd, enforcement manager of EEOC New York Office District, said in an interview.
Boyd said that the EEOC "vigorously pursues meritorious charges" filed by any worker covered by the federal employment discrimination laws.
But Gina Morales*, an undocumented worker who was hired by a Filipino woman to work as a secretary for a remittance center but ended up being a server in a small restaurant in Jersey City, has a different concern. "What could I get from my former employer if she will be proven guilty of abusive behavior?" she said.
After six months of slavery and maltreatment, according to Morales, 44, she managed to escape from the house of her employer, where she also lived, with the help of a friend.
One day she advised her friend to bring a car and meet her on the corner of the street. With only a handful of clothes in a carry-on bag, she finally made her way out and never came back.
Undocumented workers are entitled to the same remedies given to all other workers, unless the award would conflict with the requirements of immigration laws.
The remedies under the laws enforced by EEOC for workers include a "reinstatement if the employee was unlawfully terminated, and instatement if the employee was discriminatorily denied a job, back pay, other injunctive relief, damages and attorney's fees."
Reyes, who now has a new employer who treats her fairly despite her immigration status, also regards exploitation of Filipino undocumented workers by Filipino employers as a "disease" that must be cured in Filipino culture.
Filipinos, she said, must completely eradicate the "crab mentality"—the tendency of Filipino immigrants to pull each other down, like crab struggling to escape from a basket.
"Because most Filipino employers know exactly where you came from, your educational attainment, and that you are a "new immigrant," they have the tendency to size you up and hamper your growth," she said. "Sometimes I wonder why Filipinos change when they get here in America? What's in America that changes who they were before and where they came from?"
*Undocumented workers in this story requested to change their full names, citing the significance of discretion to their employers.
This article was written as part of the Ethnic Press Fellowship of the Independent Press Association-New York.
This article appeared in Edition 79 of Voices That Must Be Heard.
Included by permission of Filipino Express. Voices © 2003, IPA, all rights reserved.
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