News

The San Francisco Unified School District has been ordered to pay nearly $40,000 in back wages and fines after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found that the SFUSD violated federal labor laws governing the hiring of foreign workers.

The Labor Department began investigating the district's employment of foreign teachers using H1-B visas -- a common work visa that is widely used in Silicon Valley -- earlier this year, after a San Francisco teacher who wasn't hired by the district filed a discrimination lawsuit. SF Weekly first reported on questions about the district's foreign recruiting practices in a Feb. 23 story, "Off the Books."

During the course of their investigation, Labor Department officials found that foreign teachers, rather than the school district, had paid the government fees and legal costs associated with obtaining an H1-B visa. Federal law requires that the employer, not the employee, pay the fees.

In addition, labor inspectors found that the district did not post required information relating to the employment of foreign workers, nor did the district notify the union, in this case, United Educators of San Francisco, of its intent to hire foreign workers, as required by federal law.

William Rada, SFUSD assistant superintendent of human resources, explained that the district was unaware of the 1994 law requiring employers to pay the costs associated with obtaining an H1-B visa for its foreign employees. The district, he says, has since notified 15 teachers that they will be reimbursed a total of $35,516 for the legal fees and costs spent to obtain their visas. Some of the teachers paid as much as $1,500 in legal fees to work in San Francisco Unified. The district currently employs 17 teachers from Mexico, Hong Kong, and the Philippines with H1-B visas. Along with the back wages, the SFUSD will pay an additional $4,000 to the Department of Labor in penalties.

"Apparently, in not paying these fees for the individuals, we violated certain labor laws," Rada says. "We didn't know it, but we did violate the law. And regardless of whether or not you were aware you were breaking the law, there are monetary penalties."

The SFUSD has changed its policies to come into compliance with federal law, Rada says. The cost for each visa is $500. In the future, the district's legal counsel -- a deputy city attorney -- will handle the paperwork.

San Francisco Unified faces a shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in the areas of math, science, and special education, as well as bilingual teachers. However, other than participating in a statewide program for visiting teachers from Spain, the district does not plan to pursue more foreign recruiting, Rada says, adding that cultural differences often make it difficult for foreign teachers to deal with American children in the classroom. Meanwhile, the district will continue to actively recruit from around the state and the country.

However, Rada says that most of the district's teachers come from within a 50-mile radius of San Francisco. The cost of living and low teacher salaries (starting pay is just above $31,000) often scare off would-be educators from other parts of the country.