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.