Foreign students question exchange program

by Carol Crump
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 8:43 AM MDT

It sounds like a win-win situation.

American businesses that need unskilled workers have a temporary employment pool to draw from. International students have an opportunity to learn about America first hand.

The real experience for some of the foreign college students has turned out to be very different from what they expected.

Some girls who have come to Casper as part of the program have complained about everything from overcrowded housing to rent still being deducted from their paychecks after they’ve moved out of company-owned rental property.

Aspire Worldwide is one of several international companies that place student workers in Casper fast food restaurants and hotels.

Aspire currently has 15 young people from China, Taiwan, Mongolia, Turkey and Romania in Casper and Douglas to work for the three McDonald’s franchise restaurants.

Three Romanian girls who came back to Casper through another company also work for the local franchise and a hotel chain.

According to the Web site for Aspire Worldwide, a branch of the international student exchange program ASSE headquartered in Laguna Beach, Calif., the program has representatives around the world that pair university students with employers in America.

The purpose of the summer work and travel program is to offer international students “the opportunity to immerse themselves in U.S.A. daily life through temporary employment opportunities during their summer holidays.”

The chance to go abroad from countries where foreign travel may be restricted is a strong lure for university students eager to improve their English, said one of the young women taking part in the program.

The American jobs are all unskilled, entry-level positions with no qualifications required for work in locations from the hotels near the Grand Canyon to a Burger King in Denver.

“McDonald’s picked us”

Where the foreign students end up is determined by the program.

“McDonald’s picked us,” one of the girls said.

The students can change jobs with the approval of Aspire, but must agree to immediately being sent home if their employment contract doesn’t work out.

Linda Curtis and her husband Leslie as Curtis Enterprises, LLC, have owned the two McDonald’s franchises in Casper and one in Douglas since April 2006.

She told the Casper Journal she heard about the foreign worker program from other operators in the state.

“It’s hard to find people to staff the stores,” she said. “We decided to give it a shot.”

The service for employers is free and they are exempt from paying Social Security taxes on the student employees. Aspire does prescreening of the number of workers the employer requests, based on criteria set by the employer.

To work at McDonald’s, Curtis asks for “good to better” English skills, including reading and understanding English well enough to communicate with customers.

The number of workers McDonald’s needs varies by season, and the availability of the foreign students fluctuates depending on their school schedules and their country of origin.

Since the first cycle in 2007, Curtis has had as many as 45 foreign students and as few as the 15 she has now. Most are 19-22 years of age.

“They float in and out at different times” for three-month work cycles, Curtis said.

Laura Martin, the store manager at the east side Mc-Donald’s, said the young people from outside the U.S. are no more challenging than new American workers.

“Some are better in the grill area,” she said. “Some are better at service.”

All of McDonald’s employees work a variety of shifts from 5 a.m. to midnight, from 32-40 hours a week.

“It’s a good program because it helps us out and by byhelps out our customers,” Martin said.

The young workers who come to Casper to work for $8.75 per hour pay may face some job-related problems like identifying unfamiliar food, or cultural differences such as being required to scrub floors and understanding break times and changes in work schedules.

A costly experience

Curtis, who said she makes a point of picking up the incoming workers at the airport or bus station herself to be sure they get settled into housing, have groceries and a Social Security card,(I thought they didn’t pay SS. Are these maybe other work related papers??) said she trains the workers “like regular employees.”

The franchise owner said she does take the extra step of training the foreign workers together at the franchise offices.

“They need to say something” about any cultural issues, Curtis said. “When they are in America, they need to do as we do, just like other employees.”

The bigger challenges for college students who came to Casper hoping to experience America through work and travel are the amounts they earn, the rent they pay and transportation.

The young workers are paid beginner wages of $8.75 an hour. Curtis told the Journal the workers are guaranteed 32 hours of work per week, or more if it’s available.

But according to their pay stubs, some of the work weeks have turned out to be as few as 20 hours, and the young workers say they are sent home early, sometimes after as few as two or four hours of work, when business is slow.

Many of the college students have found or are looking for second jobs, something Curtis claimed many of the young workers expected to do. She told the Journal she’ll work with them, if asked, to accommodate additional work hours, if they fit the hours she needs at McDonald’s and are anywhere except a competing restaurant.

Each of the young people, who asked not to be identified by name, contracted to pay job-finding fees to a sponsor in their home country and to Aspire of approximately $1,300. They also pay their own costs to obtain a work visa and all of their travel expenses.

An average cost could be as much as $3,000 to come to the U.S. for three months of work and one month of an opportunity to stay in the country and travel. (Is this $3,000 total or $1,300 for Aspire + $3,000 travel?)

$4,950 per month in rent?

According to Aspire, the college students are responsible for their own living expenses, rent and transportation. Fei Jiang, the executive director of Aspire’s summer work travel program in Laguna Beach, Calif., said the amount of rent students will be charged is based on what the employer can offer, and the students agree to the amount ahead of time.

The amount suggested in the Aspire student handbook is a minimum of $350 per month.

In Casper, some housing is provided for female workers by Curtis at a furnished house she and her husband own. The house was approved by Aspire after a home visit by the company’s representative.

The Curtises bought and furnished a three-bedroom house with a fourth bedroom in the basement on East 12th Street specifically for the young women. For male students, Curtis makes initial arrangements for the least expensive hotel available but long- term housing is their responsibility. In the past, Curtis also has housed students in four leased apartments in Casper and a house in Douglas.

Part of the students’ work contract is an agreement to pay rent and live where they are told, and they know the amount of rent that will be charged when they sign their contact, Curtis said.

The girls who live in the house on East 12th Street each pay $450 per month rent, deducted directly from their paychecks on the 5th and 20th of the month.

According to the Job Order provided by Aspire that the college students signed in their own countries, rent will not be deducted from their paychecks.

Curtis was not willing to tell the Journal how many girls were living in the house, but one girl said 11 girls were living there earlier this week. On July 9, 15 girls were housed there, two sleeping on mattresses on the floor, according to one source.

Curtis denied there were ever that many girls living there, saying 15 would be “too many” for the house. She said the house, which was in such excellent condition that she and her husband considered moving into it when they bought it, is not overcrowded and each girl has her own bed and a dresser.

Jiang told the Journal in a telephone conversation that the international organization does become a mediator between employers and students when necessary. She acknowledged that problems have occurred in Casper because of “some of the housing issues.”

Rent still deducted after girls move out

Four of the girls, who came to Casper to work on June 29, moved out to an apartment on July 10 after their first paycheck because of overcrowding. Three of the girls, who are from Taiwan, have since quit McDonald’s and found other jobs.

Since a section of the Job Order they signed includes an agreement that changing companies or housing could put them in violation of their work visas, they are waiting to see if they will be allowed to stay in the country.

According to one of the Taiwanese girls, Curtis has continued to deduct rent even after the girls moved into an apartment in July. Her pay stub for the two weeks ending Aug. 15 shows 42.87 hours of work, with deductions of $11.89 in federal withholding and $225 for rent, for a net income of $138.22. The stub also shows $900 in total rent paid since June 29.

“I told her (Curtis) I don’t have money to pay two rents,” the girl said. “She told me to find a second job.”

A pay stub from Aug. 4 for the same worker includes a printed warning: “When you signed the job offer, you agreed to live in the provided housing. Moving without permission is in violation of the contract. You were informed you would continue to pay rent if you moved.

“As you moved without permission rent has been deducted and will continue to be. As you have moved from the house you are not allowed to be there for any reason.”

“If they don’t give notice when they leave, I’ll still take out rent,” Curtis said.

She told the Journal last week that the rent deductions stopped when she was notified a student had left her housing.

In the interview with the Journal, Curtis did acknowledge that there were problems in the house created by water damage when the upstairs bathroom ceiling collapsed into the downstairs bathroom.

She said she was there immediately when the girls called and a plumber is looking into a situation that she believes was caused by the girls’ misunderstanding of the need to put the shower curtain inside the bathtub.

“They created the leak,” she said.

Walking to work

The need to walk to and from work during the night along Wyoming Boulevard or to the westside McDonald’s when The Bus isn’t running also concerns some of the girls that visited with the Journal.

“We were told everything was in walking distance” in Casper, one of the girls said.

Curtis said she makes sure each of the young people has a schedule for The Bus and knows where the nearest bus stop is located.

She said her managers are willing to provide rides, especially for early morning and late night shifts, if the young workers ask. She said she occasionally has reimbursed some of the managers for gas for taking the Aspire students back and forth.

The young women said some of the managers are willing to provide a ride home, especially after closing at 1 a.m., but rides are not always available at other times of night or in the early morning.

“Transportation has never been part of the work contract,” Curtis said.

Curtis said she is phasing out her use of a program that her business has come to depend on “too much. We ought to have as many locals as we can,” she said.

Curtis is putting together a request to Aspire for fewer workers to start in January, but she said she may always have some of the college students from the program.

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