An automotive component manufacturing company and a staffing firm agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed they brought highly skilled workers from Mexico to a US factory under false pretenses, according to court records. 

SL Alabama, which makes automotive components for companies such as Hyundai and Kia, will pay $900,000 of the settlement. Staffing provider Allswell will pay $300,000, according to court records. 

The US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted preliminary approval of the settlement on July 29. The defendants did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement. 

In the lawsuit, workers from Mexico claimed they were misled when agreeing to accept jobs at a SL Alabama’s production facility in Alexander City, Alabama. It claimed the workers were brought in on TN visas — which are only available to professional-level workers with specialized education and experience — but given manual labor jobs in a scheme to get less expensive labor. The workers are all highly skilled engineers and technicians, it said. 

The TN visas were created as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement 

Workers in the lawsuit believed they would be going to jobs that used their skills. 

Complaint also said the Mexican works earned less than US citizens, non-Mexican nationals and non-Hispanic workers who were in the same or similar conditions. 

The class of workers in the lawsuit includes 35 people and covers those worked at SL Alabama any time from oct. 25, 2019, to the present. 

In an email to SIA, Daniel Werner, a partner at law firm Radford Scott, said plaintiffs would not be commenting on the case. 

Attorneys for the defendants have also been contacted for comment. 

Bloomberg said the lawsuit is one of several in the southeast that claims auto firms have abused the TN visa program. 

Peregrina et al v. SL Alabama LLC et al; US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, 3:23-cv-00206-TCB-RGV