dispatcher-12

Austin City Council passes wage theft protection ordinance

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Author: KVUE Staff
Published: December 2, 2022

The ordinance includes three elements that aim to protect workers and help them get full payment for the work that they do.

AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday, the Austin City Council voted on a way to protect laborers.

The council unanimously passed an ordinance that it says will help prevent wage theft.

According to the Workers Defense Project, the ordinance will create a wage theft coordinator position to assist workers that come forward with reports of wage theft violations. The council said this will help make sure workers get full payment for the work that they do.

The ordinance will also create a publicly available database of employers that have a record of wage theft doing business with the City of Austin. It will also bar any employer identified in the database from entering into contracts with the City.

The Austin Monitor reports that the City does not have the authority to prosecute wage theft violators. That responsibility lies with the state and local governments.

Employers who are proven to have committed wage theft can be fined and even sentenced to jail time.

(See Article)

unnamed

Council moves to put a stop to wage theft

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2022
BY JO CLIFTON

Austin is taking a step toward joining El Paso and Houston in punishing employers that engage in wage theft, with a resolution City Council approved unanimously on Thursday. A dozen people signed up to tell Council members to approve the resolution, which was sponsored by Council Member Ann Kitchen.

The resolution directs City Manager Spencer Cronk to create a system for the city to receive complaints from workers about construction employers who fail to pay wages owed to employees, fail to maintain payroll records or improperly classify employees as independent contractors. Staff members are expected to come back to Council with an ordinance establishing criminal penalties and a civil complaint procedure relating to wage theft. …

District Attorney José Garza sent a letter to the mayor and Council urging them to approve the resolution. He noted that his office has launched an economic justice enforcement initiative, with some emphasis on deterring wage theft. However, he wrote, “As we have undertaken this initiative, it has become clear to us that there are not sufficient systems in place to support wage theft victims or deter these legal violations from recurring. We need additional partners in this work. I am hopeful that this resolution presents an opportunity for our office to deepen its collaboration with the city and strategize how we can strengthen avenues available for wage theft victims to seek justice.”

(Read More)

Committee votes to close living wage loophole

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Thursday, December 17, 2015
by Vicky Garza

 

 

City Council’s Economic Opportunity Committee approved a resolution at its meeting on Monday that would effectively close a loophole that allows some city contractors to avoid paying workers a living wage.

Both Bob Batlan, of Austin Interfaith, and Emily Timm, deputy director of Workers Defense Project, spoke in favor of the resolution.

“This is simply closing a loophole that currently allows bad actors to subcontract out and not comply with that living wage standard,” said Timm. She added that the requirements will ultimately “protect responsible contractors who are doing their best to comply with the city’s living wage standards that are already in place in the purchasing department.”

(Read More)

AISD Adopts Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wage Schedule, Plans to Conduct Living Wage Floor Study

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
In a split vote at its June 16 meeting, Austin ISD’s board of trustees adopted the federal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage schedule as the schedule AISD uses to pay construction workers, and the board pledged to conduct an additional study to determine a living wage for workers.
Pipe fitters, laborers and representatives from Austin Interfaith and AISD employees union Education Austin urged the board to adopt Davis-Bacon and stop using what they called an outdated wage rate schedule, while others called Davis-Bacon “flawed” and asked the board to postpone the vote.

Kayvon Sabourian, an attorney with the Austin nonprofit Equal Justice Center, has said the state allows school districts two options-adopting federal wage rates or conducting a wage rates study. The board in January approved a consent agenda item to put its own study in place, and AISD currently uses wage rates based on a study conducted in 2005, he said.

Sabourian told the board he has represented construction workers whose prevailing wage rates have been violated on AISD projects.

(Read More)

Austin Council Standing Up For Prevailing Wages

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
 J.W. Marriot developer, White Lodging, is in hot water for breaking a City of Austin contract by underpaying workers.The company received $3.8 million in tax breaks. Now council is giving them two options, pay the lost wages or pay back the city millions.Workers Defense Project spokesperson Patricia Zavala says they blew the whistle on the company. City auditors checked the numbers and found at least 13 employees were underpaid. Then the city ordered the developer to pay back the laborers in February, and then it was extended in March, then June.

(Read More)