$11.5 Million Class Action Settlement

On August 11, 2022, workers who had come to the United States from Mexico on TN visas filed a class and collective action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The operative pleading, the Third Amended Class and Collective Action Complaint, was filed on March 20, 2023.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of a group of Mexican nationals who were recruited on TN nonimmigrant visas and who were assigned by the staffing company GB2G, Inc. d/b/a Allswell to work at manufacturing operations in West Point, Georgia. The named plaintiffs sued on behalf of themselves and a proposed class of similarly situated TN visa holders.

Following the Court’s rulings on the defendants’ motions to dismiss, the claims that remained for settlement were brought under the federal RICO Act, the Georgia RICO Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The defendants denied the plaintiffs’ allegations and denied any liability.

The plaintiffs alleged that recruiting and staffing companies recruited skilled Mexican engineers and technicians for professional-level positions that would qualify for the TN visa program under the North American trade agreements, but then assigned those workers to manual production-line jobs at lower pay after they arrived in the United States. The complaint characterized this as a “bait and switch.”

According to the complaint, workers relied on representations about the professional nature of the jobs and their eligibility for TN visas, paid application costs, and moved from Mexico to Georgia, only to be placed in repetitive assembly-line labor. The plaintiffs alleged that this conduct violated the federal and Georgia RICO statutes and that the workers were not paid all wages owed under the FLSA.

The defendants that participated in this settlement are Mobis Alabama, LLC d/b/a Hyundai Mobis; Kia Georgia, Inc.; GB2G, Inc. d/b/a Allswell; SPJ Connect, Inc.; and Youngjin Lee. Mobis and Kia Georgia are separate companies that each maintain their own operations in West Point, Georgia. The plaintiffs were recruited by staffing and recruiting defendants and were assigned by Allswell — which paid their wages — to work at Mobis’ or Kia Georgia’s West Point locations.

No Admission of Liability. The defendants deny the plaintiffs’ factual and legal allegations and deny any wrongdoing or liability. The settlement was entered to resolve disputed claims and avoid the cost and uncertainty of continued litigation. It is not, and may not be treated as, an admission of liability or of any factual allegation by any defendant.

The settlement fund was allocated among class members based primarily on how long each person was assigned to work during the class period. Individual Rule 23 allocations ranged from approximately $4,112.50 for the shortest assignments up to roughly $16,800 for the longest, and members of the FLSA group received an additional $30 for each week worked. The Court found this length-of-service allocation provided equitable treatment to the class, and no class member objected to it.

The class was defined, for settlement purposes, to include TN visa holders who were recruited by TESS, SPJ, or Allswell; were assigned by Allswell to work at Kia Georgia’s or Mobis’ West Point, Georgia locations; and received wages from Allswell. The Rule 23 class period runs from August 11, 2018 to the present, and the FLSA collective period runs from August 11, 2019 to the present.

• If you did not exclude yourself, you are a member of the settlement class and are bound by the Final Order and Judgment and the release of claims.
• Payment is based on your records. Distributions are calculated from the payroll and length-of-service data in the case, using the allocation approved by the Court.
• Provide your payment information. To receive a payment, class members must submit valid settlement distribution information to the Settlement Administrator.
• Watch for administrator communications. Notice and payment communications were sent by mail, email, telephone, and WhatsApp.

Settlement Administrator

Martinez v. Mobis Alabama, LLC c/o Atticus Administration P.O. Box 64053 Saint Paul, MN 55164

You may also contact Hall & Lampros, LLP with questions about the case.