Creating wage theft transparency (CO)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

February 2, 2017 10:41 am
Column by Jessie Danielson

Imagine working hard at your job, then discovering that you’ve been cheated out of your wages or benefits when your paycheck arrives. You may have personally experienced something similar – not being paid for overtime worked, having to work off the clock, or other wage law violations.

Perhaps the worse part is that under current state law, employers found guilty of wage theft are shielded from the public eye because an obsolete law classifies wage theft as a “trade secret.”

I believe that is wrong. Hardworking Coloradans deserve better, and the public deserves to know about employers who unfairly cheat their workers. That is why I have introduced the Wage Theft Transparency Act, HB17-1021, which will do away with the 100-year-old state law that shields these companies. Not only will it help workers, but it will even the playing field for the vast majority of Colorado businesses who do not violate wage laws Most companies across the state treat their workers fairly. Most companies and employers do not violate the law or the rights of their employees. They know that hard work should be compensated and good employees are critical to their companies’ success.

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Northampton adopts ‘Fair Employment City’ status with unanimous council vote (MA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Mary Serreze
on February 03, 2017 at 1:30 AM

NORTHAMPTON — The nine-member City Council took a public stand against wage theft, worker misclassification, and poor working conditions as it unanimously approved a resolution declaring Northampton a “fair employment city.”

It was one of several labor-related actions taken before a roomful of advocates packed into Council Chambers at 212 Main Street on Thursday night. The crowd broke into applause at the conclusion of the roll-call vote.

“This has been a long, complicated, and nuanced process, unifying lots of varying agendas and priorities,” said City Council president Bill Dwight.

…

The resolution declares in part that “decent working conditions and fair wages for workers is an essential part of investment in local economies and sustainable employment practices.”

It takes aim at the misclassification of employees as independent contractors, saying the practice denies workers critical benefits and protections to which they are entitled.

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Coalition lays out agenda to boost Massachusetts workers (MA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Posted Tuesday, January 17, 2017 4:36 pm
By Colin A. Young, State House News Service

BOSTON – Labor unions, community groups and workers rights organizations set up shop in the Great Hall on Tuesday morning to draw attention to a raft of bills that constitute a “healthy workplace legislative agenda” that they said will make workplaces safer for all employees.

Among the issues advocates hoped to bend policymakers’ ears on were public employee safety, workplace bullying, protections for pregnant workers, wage theft, paid family and medical leave, using carbon dioxide detectors in public buildings, and a raise in the state’s minimum wage.

Led by the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) and the AFL-CIO, the lobby day featured briefings on bills, speeches from workers and union leaders, and visits to wrangle support among lawmakers.

“We ask you to be here today in fairness, to join us in fairness, to help us move the agenda for working people who are under attack and public employees who give their hearts and souls and then are made to be the goat,” Massachusetts ALF-CIO President Steven Tolman said during a speech to the organizers who would be visiting legislative offices. “That’s what this is about, about working together to find an agenda to make working people continue to have the strength and the benefits that they should have. That’s all we ask.”

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Ky. Legislative update (KY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By State Rep. Chris Harris
JANUARY 9, 2017

I fought hard during this first week of the 2017 session of the Kentucky General Assembly to protect the interests of Kentucky’s working families against a rising tide of wealthy corporate interests, but in the end, our best efforts were blocked by the new ruling majority in the Kentucky House of Representatives. This week will go down in Kentucky history as one of the most damaging to working people.

Never before in modern times has a legislative session been used to do so much harm in so little time with so few opportunities for public input or debate. No time was wasted by Republican majorities in the House and the Senate to repeal prevailing wage standards in the construction of public projects and to enact what I call “right to work for less” legislation. These measures – affecting thousands of working families in Kentucky, both union and non-union – passed despite our strong objections and repeated attempts to slow the process long enough to let the voices of the people be heard during the legislative process.

Numerous studies and overwhelming data show workers’ wages go down when so-called “right to work” legislation, is passed. There’s a long list of other ills associated with right to work states – less health insurance coverage, poor workplace safety records, and less per capita spending on education, to name a few.

Repealing prevailing wage standards also lowers wages for building and tradesmen, like electricians, pipe fitters, plumbers, and steamfitters employed in public construction projects. These repeals also negatively affect the quality of construction and encourage out-of-state, fly-by-night contractors with employees of questionable training, skills and citizenship.

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Union members say lawmakers launching ‘attack on the working people’ (KY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY JOHN CHEVES AND JACK BRAMMER
JANUARY 7, 2017 10:19 AM

FRANKFORT – Angry labor union members on Saturday said they don’t know how they became public enemy No. 1 in Kentucky’s 2017 legislative session.

Hundreds of workers in boots and heavy coats poured onto every public floor of the state Capitol to loudly protest final passage of three bills that they say will weaken unions and reduce construction workers’ wages.

“It’s an attack on the working people,” said Chris Kendall, 44, a member of Local 184 of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union in Paducah.

“It’s almost like we’re the enemy somehow, that it’s the politicians against us,” Kendall said. “And all we’re trying to do is earn an honest day’s wage.”

Said Bruce Rowe, a Pike County truck driver who belongs to Local 14581 of United Steelworkers, “This will just be awful for our communities. Once you cut our pay, your tax base goes down, and we’ve got less money to spend at Wal-Mart and buying cars and getting groceries for our families and shoes for our kids.”

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Department of Workforce Solutions ordered to stop rejecting wage-theft claims (NM)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Posted: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 7:00 pm
By Phaedra Haywood
The New Mexican

A Santa Fe judge ordered the state Department of Workforce Solutions to temporarily stop rejecting wage-theft claims under what a group of workers claims are misguided policies.

Attorneys who filed a class-action lawsuit last month claim the state agency has allowed businesses to get away with cheating employees out of receiving a required minimum wage and overtime pay. The complaint accuses the department of adopting policies that allow it to dismiss and deny claims for reasons that are not supported by law.

For example, the lawsuit says, the department has refused to investigate complaints of wage theft involving more than $10,000 even though no law precludes this and has ignored claims that date back more than one year.

The judge’s restraining order was jointly requested by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and workers’ rights groups including Centro de Igualdad Y Derechos, NM Comunidades En Accion Y De Fé, Organizers in the Land of Enchantment and Somos Un Pueblo Unido.

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Proposed Fix to Get Business Owners to Pay Unpaid Wages (FL)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Myriam Masihy
Updated at 8:50 PM EST on Jan 24, 2017

A proposed ordinance could help strengthen Miami-Dade County’s existing wage theft ordinance.

Commissioner Pepe Diaz introduced the plan that would add attorney fees to the amount a business owes an employee who takes them to court over unpaid wages.

“They can try to ignore it but it’s going to be a lot harder,” Diaz said.

The county has a wage theft ordinance that allows a worker to take a former employer to a hearing over unpaid money. A hearing officer can rule that a business owner has to pay. But the NBC 6 Investigators found business owners still not paying workers even after the deadline passes.

The new plan would require a business to pay attorney fees and costs that a worker takes on trying to get the money. An attorney is not required in the initial hearing portion of a wage theft hearing but could be needed to pursue a business that doesn’t pay.

“We’re going to continue to do things so hopefully, hopefully this will be a thing of the past in Miami-Dade County,” Diaz said.

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Allegations Of Unpaid Wages And Benefits Hit Asbestos Cleanup Firms (MA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

January 18, 2017
By Beth Daley, The Eye

Federal prosecutors are investigating an asbestos-removal company active in the Boston area to see whether the firm withheld wages and benefits from workers, according to people familiar with the matter.

The case is part of widening U.S. Justice Department activity and private civil action targeting asbestos-removal and demolition contractors for alleged worker mistreatment amid a construction and renovation boom in Massachusetts.

Registered asbestos-abatement jobs in the state totaled 25,660 in 2016, up 64 percent in five years, as construction materials in many older buildings being torn apart for renovation often contain the carcinogenic mineral.

Within the last two years, two criminal cases and three civil lawsuits have been brought in U.S. District Court in Boston alleging companies are cheating asbestos-removal or demolition workers on wage and benefits payments. In one of the cases, the owner of an asbestos-abatement firm pleaded guilty to federal charges after prosecutors alleged he paid workers in cash to avoid employment taxes and payments he owed to union benefit funds

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Gary Wetzel: Repealing Wisconsin’s prevailing wage law would hurt veterans

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

February 21, 2017

 

SOUTH MILWAUKEE – I am a proud military veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, American Legion member and retired operating engineer. Though retired, I am an active advocate for veterans, their medical care, job opportunities and family sustaining wages.

Specifically, I am concerned about a repeal of Wisconsin’s prevailing wage law and the negative impact it would have on veterans.

…

This is not a union versus non-union issue. All workers in the construction industry benefit from prevailing wage laws. Prevailing wage laws simply ensure workers building our vital infrastructure receive a fair wage. If you cut construction worker wages by repealing prevailing wage laws – which everyone agrees will happen if prevailing wage laws are eliminated – veterans will be harder hit because veterans are more likely to work in the construction industry.

We are veterans who want our voices heard and have a deep desire to continue proudly serving this great state and country by building safer roads, schools and communities for our families. Let us send a loud message to our legislative leaders – protect job opportunities and wages for our veterans.

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Lawmakers put prevailing wage in crosshairs; laborers object (MO)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Sunday, February 12, 2017
By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian

 

Missouri’s prevailing wage law may not prevail much longer.

The Republican-dominated Legislature has set its sights on repealing or revising the state law.

…

A pocketbook issue

Rick McGuire, business manager for Laborers Union Local 1140 in Cape Girardeau, said repealing the prevailing-wage law would leave workers with less income.
“We have members who make a living doing prevailing-wage construction work,” he said.
In the construction trades, “you don’t work every day,” he said.

McGuire said labor unions provide skills training for their members and health insurance. A portion of the hourly wages for a union worker goes to fund training, health insurance and a pension, he said.

The prevailing wage benefits union and nonunion workers, as both are paid the same rate on a public-works project, he said.

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