Nurses Should Advance Some Quitting-Fee Claims, Magistrate Says

Foreign nurses who say Avant Healthcare Professionals LLC threatened them with monetary and immigration consequences for quitting early should get to pursue their trafficking allegations, but not their wage claims, a federal magistrate judge said.

The nurses didn’t allege that they’ve actually suffered a wage-related injury yet, so their Fair Labor Standards Act claims should be thrown out, but their forced labor claims should survive to the next stage of litigation, the magistrate judge with the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida recommended Wednesday.

Workers in other industries—including aviation, retail, and trucking—have also recently challenged contracts that ...