Consulates in U.S. Must Heed Labor Laws

Unknown to the Japanese Consulate’s most disgruntled employees, Americans working for foreign governments today probably have more rights than ever before.

* Legal experts say it is likely that consular workers can sue their foreign employers.

Diplomats remain immune from American laws in carrying out their official duties, but the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 put strict limits on the legal immunity of consulates and foreign trade agencies in the United States.

The law explicitly excludes from immunity the employment by a foreign government of Americans or citizens of a third country. There are no recorded cases of suits against consulates, but courts repeatedly have cited the legislation in allowing American employees to sue foreign trade offices.

* Consular staffs may also be free to form unions.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused early this month to overturn a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that employees of a West German government cultural center in New York could organize a union and seek U.S. government recognition. Again, lawyers suspect that the ruling clears the way for union activity at consulates.

* The State Department’s Office of Protocol stands ready to mediate disputes between foreign missions and their workers--although it doesn’t advertise its availability.

The office’s most publicized work involves welcoming foreign dignitaries and persuading foreign governments to discipline diplomats when they or their relatives are involved in crimes.

But it does occasionally investigate charges that employees of missions are being mistreated, according to Richard J. Gookin, associate chief of protocol. Most involve either domestic servants, brought from a diplomat’s home country, or “third country nationals,” citizens of neither the United States nor the country in whose mission they work, Gookin said.

Third country nationals, widely employed at consulates in Los Angeles, are vulnerable to exploitation, lawyers explain. Typically lacking visas or immigration documents that would allow them to work for American employers, the loss of a job at a foreign mission exposes them to deportation.