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City Looks to Pay Off Undocumented Workers Cheated by Contractors (NY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY JEANINE RAMIREZ 
PUBLISHED 8:14 AM ET JAN. 25, 2019

An asbestos abatement contractor using a Cropsey Avenue address in Brooklyn is one of more than 50 companies banned from doing city-funded work for allegedly underpaying workers.

“The reason these workers are cheated is because there is a feeling with some of these contractors that you can get away with that because the workers are immigrants or they may appear vulnerable,” City Comptroller Scott Stringer said.

Most of the companies did construction work or provided building services under city contracts.

Comptroller Scott Stringer says his office already has recovered $12 million from the companies for 1,500 people who suffered wage theft.

But Stringer says he’s recovered an additional $2.5 million that still must be distributed.Stringer added, “We want to locate the other 1,500 workers who were scammed and lost their wages. They’re out there. They’re out there in our boroughs. They could be around the corner.”

Many of the workers cheated by city contractors are immigrants. Stringer’s office cited the case of one man who eventually left the city and returned to Ecuador, where he was contacted and provided with his back pay.

“We had great news for him, we had the opportunity to send him a lot of checks with a significant amount of money that he received in Ecuador,” said Linda Machuca, Consul General of Ecuador in NY.

The cheated workers receive back pay plus interest, regardless of their immigration status. Immigrant rights groups and consulates are working with the city to locate some of those owed money. Officials say undocumented immigrants who receive wage awards will not be reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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Construction workers rally for unpaid wages (TN)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Posted: 8:21 PM, Feb 05, 2019

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) – Construction workers and Metro Council Members gathered at the steps of the Historic Metro Courthouse Tuesday night, denouncing what they call “legal attacks” made by general contractor Skanska.

Workers who helped build the J.W. Marriott in downtown Nashville are part of an ongoing labor dispute against two drywall subcontractors hired by Skanska, a company currently building the Fifth + Broadway development downtown. At least one hundred workers say they are still owed two weeks worth of pay.

Advocates say a group of affected workers and community supporters visited Skanska’s offices in December, and were promised a follow up meeting.

But days later, advocates say names of some of the workers appeared in counter-lawsuit against their original mechanic’s liens claims.

“We believe that in our city all workers deserve good working conditions and it is our duty to ensure that their rights are upheld, protected, and that we in this city start creating more and more enforcement mechanisms to do exactly that,” said Metro Council member Fabian Bedne.

Cesar Ramirez, an affected J.W. Marriott worker, said: “We won’t stop until justice is made here, we feel betrayed that after giving [Skanska regional Vice President Dennis Georgatos] the benefit of the doubt, and believing that Skanska truly wanted a positive resolution, what we got in return, was one more attack in court.”

Workers and community supporters are demanding back pay from Skanska, and for the company to drop their counter-suit.


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Bill aimed at “wage and benefit theft” has public hearing (WA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

SARA GENTZLER   FEBRUARY 4, 2019

The House Labor & Workplace Standards Committee last week heard testimony on a bill that would add the ways workers in Washington’s construction industry can take action if they don’t get paid.

The bill is meant to address “wage and benefit theft,” which can arise in home remodels and construction projects where a general contractor hires subcontractors, who hire workers. The “theft” occurs when a worker doesn’t get paid by the subcontractor who hired them.

The committee heard public testimony on the bill last week.

Evelyn Shapiro, principal officer for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, talked in her testimony about workers who have been threatened at gunpoint after asking for wages and sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after completing a job.

The impact of unpaid wages can also ripple out, Shapiro explained after the hearing, leading to “billions of dollars in unrecovered taxes and premiums” and creating a difficult environment for contractors who play by the rules.

“The contractors who follow the law have no ability to build on an even playing field when they are underbid constantly by other contractors who are underbidding them by as much as 30 percent,” Shapiro said. “We feel that not only does it hurt workers, it hurts our infrastructure, it hurts our social systems.”

If workers aren’t paid by the subcontractors who hire them, they currently have two options for trying to recover their missing wages. They can:

  • Go through Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries, which investigates the claim and can order the employer to pay, then collect wages plus interest; or
  • Take the case to civil court.

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W.Va. judge strikes down key portions of right-to-work law (WV)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY JOHN RABY – ASSOCIATED PRESS
FEBRUARY 27, 2019 11:07 PM

CHARLESTON, W.VA.
A judge on Wednesday sided with labor unions in striking down key portions of West Virginia’s so-called right-to-work law, including those that allowed workers to stop paying union dues.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by the state chapter of the AFL-CIO and other unions. The judge said some provisions of the 2016 law violated the state constitution.

Labor unions maintained the law illegally took their assets since they still have to represent all employees in a union shop, including those that the law would allow to stop paying union dues.

Bailey struck down provisions that would authorize union employees to stop paying dues and fees or, in lieu of that, make payments to a charity or third party.

The new law would have required unions and union officials “to work, to supply their valuable expertise, and to provide expensive services for nothing,” Bailey wrote.

…

West Virginia AFL-CIO President Josh Sword said Bailey “was right-on with her ruling. We entered into this lengthy legal challenge nearly three years ago because we knew the law violated of the rights of West Virginia workers – and we simply won’t stand for that.”

Curtis Johnson, a spokesman for West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, said Morrisey’s office is reviewing the circuit court’s decision

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