Other California cities should follow the lead of Berkeley and San Jose on this issue.
By: Cesar Sanchez
August 21, 2019
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Research has shown that fully one in six of the more than one million workers in California’s construction industry face some form of exploitation. Often, they are immigrants searching for a better life for their families. For unscrupulous employers, such aspirations are too often weaponized both as a recruitment tool and as a means to silence workers who might otherwise speak out against abuse.
Yet workers aren’t the only victims. Construction employers who engage in these crimes are cheating taxpayers out of billions of dollars payroll tax and workers compensation obligations each year.
Most of the time, contractors and subcontractors who engage in these practices don’t get caught or aren’t held accountable. While California law protects all workers – regardless of immigration status – the fact is that efforts to demonize immigrants by some national political leaders has only given malign employers more cover.
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The City of Berkeley has gone a step further. Under the leadership of Mayor Jesse Arreguin, the city council has strengthened a measure that holds construction businesses accountable for shortchanging their workers or failing to inform them of their rights. The city’s wage transparency ordinance that was updated in June withholds a certificate of occupancy from projects where workers have alleged wage violations, requires construction employers to commit to providing workers with detailed pay stubs outlining wage rates and deductions, and publicly post contact information for state enforcement agencies at each jobsite. Without a certificate of occupancy, cheaters can’t win – their building can’t open, be sold, or start collecting rent.
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Over the last several decades, construction wage theft has spiked 400 percent. Contractors who are unable to win bids based on construction competence have sought to normalize business practices that steal from taxpayers and their most vulnerable workers. As we commit ourselves to prevent the kind of abuses that happened at Silvery Towers, we must remember the best solution is not to blame or condemn the victims. Instead, it must be to disrupt the corrupt business models that perpetuate these crimes.
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