FIVE Indian construction workers have accused the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) of forced labour.
According to the lawsuits filed on Tuesday (11), 200 construction workers were recruited from India to build a Hindu temple in New Jersey and were forced to work for more than 87 hours a week for $450 a month or about $1.20 an hour.
The suit has been filed by five workers against BAPS and related entities recruiting them in India for violation of US labour and immigration laws.
New Jersey's minimum wage is $12 an hour and US law requires the pay rate for most hourly workers rise to time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours a week.
The workers were kept under constant watch and were threatened with pay cuts, arrest, and return to India if they spoke to outsiders, the suit said.
The plaintiffs claim to have worked on the temple as stone cutters and other construction workers back in 2012.
The complaint said they were forced to live and work in a fenced, guarded compound which they were not allowed to leave unaccompanied by overseers affiliated with BAPS.
FBI agents visited the temple in rural Robbinsville. "We were there on court-authorized law enforcement activity," Doreen Holder, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in Newark, confirmed by telephone.
"This case is brought seeking redress for shocking violations of the most basic laws applicable to workers in this country, including laws prohibiting forced labor," the suit said.
Agents for BAPS confiscated the men's passports as soon as they arrived at JFK Airport in New York, according to the lawsuit.
The agents then kept the passports during the entirety of the workers' time in New Jersey to prevent them from leaving, the suit added.
The workers were not allowed to leave the temple grounds unless accompanied by BAPS representatives and were instructed not to talk to temple visitors, they say.
The men worked at the temple between 2018 and late last year. They claim unspecified damages.
A spokesman for BAPS issued a statement saying, "We were first made aware of the accusations this morning, we are taking them very seriously and are thoroughly reviewing the issues raised."
The suit said the BAPS entities own the land where the temple was built and arranged for its construction. The temple has been open for several years, but work on extending it is ongoing.
The suit, which also claims the workers were falsely classified as religious workers and volunteers when they entered the country, seeks "the full value of their services" as well as unspecified damages and other compensation.
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