Lawsuits from ex-Scientology members allege elite Sea Org group are round-the-clock slave laborers

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Saturday, March 27th 2010, 5:25 PM

Dovarganes/AP

The Church of Scientology's Golden Era Productions film editing suite is seen at the facility in San Jacinto, Calif. The complex is the main video and multimedia production facility and home to about 400 so-called Sea Organization members.

SAN JACINTO, Calif. -- At the edge of arid foothills far outside Los Angeles, hundreds of Scientology followers live on a gated, 500-acre campus and work long hours for almost no pay reproducing the works of founder L. Ron Hubbard and creating the church's teaching and promotional materials.

The church says its 5,000 so-called Sea Organization members are religious devotees akin to monks who are exempt from wage requirements and overtime. But two lawsuits filed by two former Sea Org members, as they are known, allege the workers are little more than slave laborers, forced to work 100-hour weeks for pennies and threatened with manual labor if they cause trouble.

Marc Headley and his wife, Claire, are seeking back pay and overtime that could add up to $1 million each, according to their attorney, Barry Van Sickle.

Experts say the plaintiffs face an uphill battle; one similar lawsuit in state court has already been dismissed, although the plaintiff plans to appeal.

But the dispute has nonetheless focused unwelcome attention on the Sea Org, which operates as a nerve center for the church's most important business. While Sea Org members hold positions of authority within the international church, from the public relations team to the top leadership, lower-ranking members make up much of the work force.

The members are Scientology's most devoted followers: they sign a billion-year pledge, vow not to have children and live and work communally.

Scientology has been sued by disgruntled members before, but experts believe these suits are the first to use labor law to challenge the premise that the Sea Organization is akin to a fraternal religious order.

A victory for plaintiffs would "certainly go to the heart of Scientology's self-identification as a religion," said J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and author of a scholarly book on Scientology.

"If they were to win this suit and the people who are in the Sea Org decided they wanted money, that would lead to, if not the collapse, then a great deal of harm," he said. "They depend upon these people."

Marc Headley devoted half his life to churning out the works of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard on an assembly line before working on in-house films and designing the audiovisual displays seen in Scientology churches worldwide.

Headley, who claims he escaped the gated facility in 2005, says he and others were threatened with forced labor and psychological abuse if they caused trouble.