On 11 May 2021, a lawsuit filed by workers in the U.S. District Court in Newark accused Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a Hindu sect known as BAPS comprised of both non-profit and for-profit entities, of labour exploitation of primarily Dalit men to construct its temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey.

According to the lawsuit, workers had been promised jobs helping to build the temple with standard work hours and time off and were brought to the United States on religious visas and presented as volunteers. Instead, the complaint says the workers had to work on the temple for more than 87 hours a week for $450 a month, or about $1.20 an hour, and their passports were confiscated. The suit also says the workers were kept under constant watch and were threatened with pay cuts, arrest and return to India if they spoke to outsiders.

According to eyewitness accounts shared with an Indian union, after a worker sickened and died on the job, his fellow workers began to organize and the protest leaders were allegedly fired and forcibly returned to India.

A spokesman for BAPS has disputed the accusations as without merit, saying the men did complicated work connecting stones that had been hand-carved in India and that they were specialized artisans.

Labour rights groups and unions in the United States and India are demanding justice for the workers at the temple and calling on the US government to strengthen labour rights protections.