14 DAY TRIAL // A 27-year-old Argentinian student is complaining about having to pay for a summer-long work and travel program and being exploited upon arrival.
Jorge Rios and 17 other students describe having paid $3,000 to $4,000 (€2,300 – € 3,074) to a company that managed the program, a sum that allegedly included taxes for tickets and visas.
After arriving in the States, Rios started working at a McDonald’s franchise in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he was not paid as much as promised and couldn't make his money back.
According to ABC News, the Geovisions company is an approved partner for the program, and reps claim that, while starting an investigation, they have no knowledge about the policy of the diner owner.
“We have been exploited by McDonald’s because we have been working for McDonald’s but we did not receive overtime or the fact that we have been put to be on-call all day had to do with the way McDonald’s designed our schedules,” Rios accuses.
He explains that employees lived in horrid conditions, sharing a basement and paying $300 (€230) per month for said accommodation.
“As many as eight of us lived in a single basement. We slept on bunk beds made for children that shook and squeaked. We had no privacy whatsoever,” he notes.
As far as salaries are concerned, they were not allowed to work a full week, and could barely make ends meet. They would work at odd hours without prior notice, and had to be available for work at any time.
“We expected to have 40 hours of work a week, but we were given as little as four hours a week at the minimum wage of $7.25 (€5.5) an hour.
“The employer knew we were desperate for more hours, and he kept us on call to come in with 30 minutes’ notice all day and night. I didn’t even have time to visit the public library,” Rios says.