Lifeguards Stranded With No Pay
U.S. Probing Md. Firm's Work With Foreign Students

By Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 19, 2008

Hundreds of foreign students who hoped to learn more about American culture working as lifeguards at pools in Maryland and Virginia this summer instead got a harsh lesson in economics when their employer abruptly shut its doors and failed to pay them.

The company, Century Pool Management, is now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Serbian Embassy has been inundated with pleas for help from students, many of them so broke they can't afford bus tickets to get to airports for their flights home.

Kensington-based Century was one of the largest companies of its kind in the region, providing lifeguards to more than 500 community pools in Maryland and Virginia. Like many pool management companies, it recruits a contingent of its summer lifeguards from Eastern Europe, helping fill a need for workers and offering an American experience to hundreds of young people from Serbia and elsewhere.

"I was so happy and proud of myself that I could do this,'' said Biljana Stojanovic, a 21-year-old student from Serbia. "But now all my dreams, they are not so happy.''

Stojanovic and others paid fees of up to $2,000 each for visas and to recruiters in their homelands for the opportunity to work in the United States. They expected to make as much as $6,000 over the summer from Century -- six times what some lifeguards said they would make at home -- but are now struggling with living expenses and with how to recoup their back pay.

Company representatives did not return phone or e-mail messages this week seeking comment. A hastily scribbled note taped to the door of Century's offices read: "Century Pools closed until further notice"; a phone number for the Maryland unemployment office also was posted. The company changed hands sometime in 2006 or early 2007, former employees said, and its Web site lists Don Vetal as chief executive; a person who answered a phone listed in that name said he was Vetal's father and did not know where his son could be reached.

A Labor Department spokeswoman would not provide details of the investigation.

Dejan Radulovic, head of consular affairs at the Serbian Embassy in Washington, said at least 81 students have contacted his office seeking help. Most are unfamiliar with the U.S. system and unsure of what to do, he said. Others are just scared.

"It's really, really bad for them,'' he said. "We hope this matter will be solved.''

Radulovic said there is little he can do because these are private employment agreements, but he is hoping for a resolution. According to Century's Web site, about 20 percent of its workers come from outside the United States.

"I am so angry," said Nebojsa Radojevic, who wanted to perfect his English and, after a summer of lifeguarding at a pool in Northern Virginia, see New York City. Instead, the 22-year-old is sitting in an unfurnished apartment in Falls Church trying to figure out how to recover the $600 that Century Pool owes him. "I just don't know what to do.''

Zeljko Kvesic spent two summers working for Century in 2005 and 2006, before it changed ownership. He loved the experience so much, he encouraged friends in Serbia to do the same. Now, he said, he feels terrible.

"I worked for Century when everything was normal,'' he said. "It was a really cool job, so that's why [I] started recruiting for them. I wanted to give others the opportunity to have an experience like mine -- to learn about American culture and American life.''

But now those he recruited "don't even have enough money to buy a bus ticket to the airport,'' he said. "It's horrible.''

It didn't begin that way. Students who shared accounts of their summer in phone interviews and by e-mail said they had some issues with housing but were generally happy with their jobs.

Stojanovic, who worked in Century's Kensington office, said she liked the work so much that she asked for more hours. Century officials seemed to like her, too, she said, promising her a $200 bonus at the end of the summer.

And then the paychecks stopped coming.

"My paycheck was late for two weeks and nobody knew what happened,'' Radojevic said. "I called the office and I was talking with a girl from my country. She told me that managers told her that they don't have money.''

Instead of traveling to New York and Niagara Falls, Stojanovic said she is staying with a friend in Harrisonburg, Va., while she tries to recoup more than $1,800 she said Century owes her. She is scheduled to fly home Sept. 27, but doesn't have the money to get to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Milan Pejcic, 26, who has worked for Century every summer since 2004, said this year he was promoted to area manager, in charge of supervising lifeguards and maintaining a network of pools.

"They pushed all summer long for us to work like crazy and they promised us that they will pay us,'' he said. But the last two paychecks never arrived. He said those who did get checks tried to cash them and found that they were worthless.

"We did good jobs," said Pejcic's friend Alksandar Milojkovic, 26, "and we expect someone to pay us for that.''