In a recent decision, the Northern District of Illinois denied a beauty salon’s motion to dismiss claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), 18 U.S.C. §1595(a), the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), and various Illinois state law claims. The court found that the plaintiff plausibly alleged that the salon’s employee training program amounted to forced labor.
The TVPA is a criminal statute. Individuals cannot bring civil suits based on violations of that law, including forced labor. However, in passing the TVPRA a few years later, Congress created a way for individuals to bring private lawsuits for violations of the TVPA.
The salon hired women in their late teens and early twenties with little or no professional experience to work at the salon and learn the beautician trade. The Plaintiff was a recent high school graduate who was hired on as a beautician assistant. Several months into her tenure, she and other beautician assistants were compelled to sign a document titled “Employee Training and Reimbursement Agreement” (the Agreement). That Agreement provided that if an employee quit or was terminated from the salon “within one calendar year of completion” of the training program, then the employee “agrees to repay the cost of the training.” This also applied if the employee failed to complete the training.
On paper, the training appeared to take about a year. In reality, it was highly subjective, lacked tests or...
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