Employers eager to recapture the costs of hiring foreign citizens often use damages or repayment provisions in employment agreements. A recent case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York illustrates a challenge to that strategy. The Southern District's recent decision in Baldia v. RN Express Staffing Registry to allow a complaint under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) to proceed, is part of a growing trend in using the TVPA to challenge such agreements.

The plaintiff in the Baldia case, Marie Alexandrine Baldia, is a citizen of the Philippines. RN Express Staffing recruited her from the Philippines and hired her as a registered nurse supervisor after sponsoring her visa to work in the United States. Baldia signed an employment agreement for a three-year term, that included a liquidated damages provision. Specifically, the employment agreement required that in the event Baldia left the employ of RN Express Staffing, "without cause," before the end of the three-year term, she would need to repay the costs of "recruiting, training and placement." The employment agreement recited that the "company recruitment costs" totaled $33,320, and that the number would be reduced after her first full year of employment.