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‘Put The Exploiters In Jail’: Wage Theft Bill Cracks Down On Employers (CO)

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By Shaun Boyd
April 2, 2019 at 11:59 pm

DENVER (CBS4) – State lawmakers want to crack down on bosses who don’t pay up. Wage theft is a big problem in Colorado.

The Colorado Fiscal Institute says more than 500,000 Colorado workers are victims of wage theft each year, losing an estimated $750 million. And right now, there’s little prosecutors can do about it.

Under current state law, wage theft is a misdemeanor, no matter if it’s $100 or $100,000. Representatives Jonathan Singer and Meg Froelich plan to change that.

“When a hard day’s work is put in, an honest day’s pay is deserved,” said Singer.

He and Froelich have introduced a bill that would align wage theft with other thefts. If it’s over $2,000, it would be a felony.

“Wage theft is perpetrated against the most vulnerable workers,” said Froelich.

It is especially common in the construction and food service industries. Jim Gleason, a carpenter, says he was a victim.

“We were getting paid every week until about the 4th or 5th week and we were informed that there wasn’t enough money to make payroll so if we didn’t mind waiting a week, we’d pay for two weeks the next week,” he said. “Well, the next week came and there was no check. It’s time we put the exploiters in jail and got the penalties that they deserve and give the wages to the people who deserve them.”

The Colorado District Attorney’s Council agrees.

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Wage theft bill heads to governor’s desk (ID)

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NATHAN BROWN
3-13-2019

A bill to give employees a year rather than six months to file claims for partial payment of wages is headed to the governor’s desk.

The bill, which was sponsored by House Minority Leader Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, passed the Senate unanimously Tuesday. It had already passed the House, also without opposition.

Sen. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, who sponsored the bill in that chamber, said people often discover they were partially shorted on pay when filing their taxes. With the current statute of limitations, that means if they file a complaint with the Department of Labor they can only recover part of the year’s pay they may be owed.

“I believe this legislation corrects a problem that affects too many wage earners, and there is no known opposition to this bill,” Burgoyne said.

(Read More)

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Guest opinion: Idahoans should get what they’re paid for (ID)

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Rep. Mat Erpelding and Jason Hudson
3-5-2019

Working Idahoans believe in receiving a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. If you agree to do a job for an agreed upon wage, that money should show up in your paycheck. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. For reasons innocent and sinister, hundreds of (if not more) Idahoans get shorted every year. As leaders who represent hard-working Idahoans, we don’t think that’s right. For the first time in a long time, your elected leaders can do something about it.

Every year, hundreds of working Idahoans file “wage theft” claims with the state Department of Labor. They seek to recover wages they were promised but never paid. This is their right under state law. The problem is, they can only recover unpaid wages for six months. If they’ve been shorted on payday for a full year, too bad.

House Bill 113 would allow workers to recover up to one-year of the money they worked for, earned, but were never paid. It’s a modest step toward ensuring an honest payday for working Idahoans. The legislation passed through the House unanimously and is heading to the Senate floor. We are hopeful our elected Senators vote to support our hardworking men and women who deserve – and could use – every cent they’ve worked for.

Chances are you know someone who has gotten shorted in their pay envelope. The workers affected by wage theft run the full spectrum of trades and professions – from constructions workers, to retail employees, food service and the healthcare industry. Most victims are blue collar workers who lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars over the course of a year. Those dollars add up quickly for someone who is trying to support a family, put food on the table and make rent every month. Giving those people the tools to recover the wages they’ve earned is not just the fair thing to do, it’s vital to their well-being and the security of their families.

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Rep. Mat Erpelding is the House Democratic Leader and Jason Hudson works with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations

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Getting the Word out about Wage Theft (MA)

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by Sue Woodcock * March 22, 2019

Quite simply, wage theft happens when someone does work and is not paid for it.

“Immigrants are easy targets, most don’t realize it’s a crime,” said Kathleen Santora, a member of the recently appointed to the Lynn Wage Theft Taskforce and a union painter representing the Painters Union District Council 35 Local 939. “But wage theft can happen to anyone in any industry.”

“We have a very strong ordinance in Lynn, it has some teeth in it and can actually do something,” Santora said. Having a taskforce in place also makes a difference.

The Wage Theft Taskforce, comprised of one (1) designee submitted by the Lynn City Council, one (1) designee submitted by the Mayor, one (1) representative chosen by the Lynn City Council from a list provided by the North Shore Labor Council, one (1) representative chosen by the Lynn City Council from a list provided by the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce, one (1) representative chosen by the Lynn City Council from a list provided by the North Shore Latino Business Association, one (1) representative chosen by the Lynn City Council from a list provided by the North Shore Building Trades Council, one (1) representative chosen by the Lynn City Council from a list provided by the Lynn Worker Center, and one (1) representative from the Lynn community chosen by the Lynn City Council from a list provided by New Lynn Coalition. Members of the Wage Theft Advisory Committee may be reappointed annually and must be appointed no later than the second meeting of the new year.

The wage ordinance was passed by the Lynn City Council in March 2018 after it was offered as a motion by then City Councilor and now State Representative Peter Capano.

“A business owner has the opportunity to do the right thing and pay up. Then they can continue doing business as usual with a bond to cover paying the employee for a year or it can end up in the attorney general’s office,” said Santora, who is a leading advocate for the building trades. She was nominated to the committee by the North Shore Labor Council.

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Labor Commissioner & Consumer Affairs Alert Garden State Accountants on Misclassification this Tax Season (NJ)

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Labor Commissioner & Consumer Affairs Alert Garden State Accountants on Misclassification this Tax Season

Misclassifying workers as 1099 independent contractors denies benefits and costs the state

March 20, 2019, 4:41 pm

TRENTON – This tax season, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, in conjunction with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, sent a letter to Garden State accountants reminding them of the legal standard for proper classification of employees and reinforcing the state’s commitment to ending worker misclassification.

By misclassifying workers as independent contractors – workers who receive 1099s, not W-2s – employers avoid paying unemployment and disability taxes, costing state and federal taxpayers untold millions of dollars. In New Jersey alone, auditors have identified more than $80 million in underreported employer contributions since 2010.

“One of the Labor Department’s primary responsibilities is protecting workers from unscrupulous business practices, and supporting responsible businesses by ensuring everyone plays by the same set of rules,” said Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo. “We are engaging New Jersey’s accounting professionals to send the message to employers that they are not able to shirk their responsibilities simply because they have unlawfully elected to use a particular form.”

Workers misclassified as independent contractors are ineligible for the wage and overtime protections and benefits afforded to employees, and can find themselves underpaid and without basic labor and OSHA protections. Additionally, independent contractors are not covered under the National Labor Relations Act, which makes it more difficult for them to organize and collectively bargain with an employer.

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Building The American Dream (TX)

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by Lorry Kikta
March 16, 2019

Let’s face it, since 2016; we have been in a period of massive political upheaval. Crazy incidents happen by the day if not the hour. Ordinances and laws that once existed to protect the more vulnerable amongst us have been rescinded. Immigrants are under attack. I don’t know if you recall your elementary school history class, but this country was built by immigrants, and if you want to get technical about it, a lot of these so-called “immigrants” were actually native to North America, which therefore make us Europeans the ones who should be worried, but I digress.

Building The American Dream synthesizes the hardships that immigrants go through to a smaller scale story. The construction workers of Texas, who are largely undocumented or DACA, face all sorts of trouble daily. A lot of the things I’m about to tell you were things I didn’t know before seeing Chelsea Hernandez’ film. If you’re like me, once you watch this film, you will be even more emboldened to do whatever you can to vote out the scourge of soulless corporate-owned politicians in our state and Federal governments.

At the beginning of Building The American Dream, 25-year-old Roendy Granillo died after working while ill at his construction job. He told his foreman that he wasn’t feeling well, but got brushed off. Roendy and the other workers were working in 110-degree Texas heat. When Roendy arrived at the hospital, his temperature was also 110 degrees, and all of his organs failed. Gustavo Granillo, Roendy’s father, says “Si mi hijo tuviera a alguien con ellos que cuidara a sus trabajadores, esto no le habría sucedido.” or “If my son had someone with them who cared for their workers, this wouldn’t have happened to him.”

Half of the construction workforce in Texas are undocumented workers. The powers-that-be want to keep it that way because undocumented workers are easy to exploit. We next meet Claudia and Alex Gionelli, two immigrants who work together as electricians. The two were contracted to do the electric work for an Aldi supermarket. The two of them started out getting paid the wage that was posted; then they started getting paid half that. Then, they weren’t getting paid at all. The contractor told him he would pay them all they were owed and told them to meet him on a specific date. When they arrived in hopes of receiving the payment for a job they had already completed, the contractor had called the police, accusing the two of stealing tools and supplies. Nothing happened, and the Gianelli’s were owed upwards of $11,000. I don’t know about you, but I would be BEYOND livid if something like this happened to me.

The Texas Workforce Commission is taking steps to help prevent future wage theft and also to get payments for people who were stiffed by their greedy employers. Meanwhile, in lieu of what happened to Roendy, the Workers Defense Project is lobbying the city council of Dallas to enforce a paid rest break for construction workers. Ten minutes for every four hours worked. This is not that big of a deal if you think about it, but in Texas, things are very different than other places. Two lovely city councilmen who I would love to give a piece of my mind said the following words in response to a request for this rule.

Councilman Callahan says “I appreciate all the passion that went behind this, but again it’s just another piece of paper, a poster, another requirement and all for a “feel-good,” mind you. ‘Hey man, we got that done! Check! Let’s come up with a new work rule next year, won’t that be fun?’ And you think you gotta boon here now, Mayor, we could really have a boon if we just streamlined that, but quit telling business “No.” Quit telling them “no.” Let the Federal Government be the arbiter when it comes to rules and regulations.” In other words, pass the buck because we don’t want to scare off the people who donate to our campaigns? Yeah, cool, buddy.

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Report: Wage Theft Rampant In Houston (TX)

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There’s a variety of ways that wage theft happens. Sometimes employers will refuse to pay outright, but others refuse to pay overtime or misclassify their employees as independent contractors.

Eric Stone
POSTED ON MARCH 28, 2019, 11:22 AM

Last August, Harris County prosecutors filed charges against a homeowner who allegedly refused to pay a house painter. The district attorney’s office charged the homeowner with theft of service.

As the county’s first-ever wage theft case, it was big news. But, it was just one case. In fact, hundreds of Houstonians didn’t get paid for their hard work last year, according to community organization Faith and Justice Worker Center. The organization collected 488 claims of wage theft and other labor violations from across the Houston area between February 2018 and February 2019.

“In this initial report, we wanted to publish the total number of wage theft claims that we received over the last year, which amounts to $1.2 million dollars,” said Silvia Chicas, the Information Manager at the Faith and Justice Worker Center.

She said there’s a variety of ways that wage theft happens. Sometimes employers will refuse to pay outright, but some cases are more nuanced. Some refuse to pay overtime or misclassify their employees as independent contractors.

“Employers who are out to break the law have very creative means by which to steal from working people,” Chicas said.

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Undocumented immigrants are especially at risk for wage theft. Chicas said she’s familiar with this tactic.

“We’ve even had reports of legal permanent residents and citizens just because the employer suspected that they might be undocumented, they issued a threat and said, ‘We’re going to call ICE on you,'” she said.

Bringing the cases to court

Valerie Turner, with the Consumer Fraud section of the Harris County District Attorney’s office, said her office works on going after wage theft violators.

“We’re here to step-in in situations where disenfranchised individuals would otherwise not have any ability to seek assistance,” Turner said in a phone interview.

The DA’s office worked with the Faith and Justice Worker Center on the case against the homeowner who wouldn’t pay his painter in 2018.

“They kind of synthesized the information, passed it on to us, and then we sort of blessed [it] off – ‘Okay, this is a situation where we would definitely consider charges,'” said Turner.

County prosecutors’ new approach to wage theft rests on Texas’ theft of service law – the same law that says you can’t dine and dash or refuse to pay a hotel bill.

(Read More)

The case for prevailing wage (NY)

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Foes say it adds costs to projects, but New York should strengthen this mandate


Patrick Purcell
February 19, 2019 12:00 AM

New York cannot afford to continue subsidizing a developers’ paradise with little to no public responsibilities tied to these taxpayer dollars.

This is a reality that Gov. Andrew Cuomo understands well. His inclusion of prevailing wage requirements on publicly subsidized projects in his budget proposal is a testament to that.

On the other side, there are forces with little interest in understanding just why prevailing wage requirements are so critical to the economic health and development of New York. An analyst for the Empire Center for Public Policy was quoted in a recent article stating, “New York’s prevailing wage mandate is an archaic law that needlessly adds 25% to the cost of construction in the city.” He said that outside of New York, the law increases project costs by 13%.

Now, these claims aren’t completely wrong. New York does have legislation that is archaic-legislation that gives private developers a loophole to take public subsidies for their projects with no responsibility to taxpayers in return. Countless projects across the state have received subsidies with zero wage requirements attached them. Just one example is Fresh Direct in the Bronx.

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Those opposed to prevailing-wage legislation based on mistaken beliefs about increased construction costs also fail to take into account that the cost of living in New York is high. When developers come to New York-and especially when they building on taxpayers’ dime-they should have to pay their workers livable wages.

Counter to the idea that prevailing-wage mandates needlessly add to the cost of construction are the actual facts.

Fact: Prevailing wages would boost the economy upstate and downstate.

Fact: Mandating wage standards and taxpayer benefits would generate an additional $3.5 million to $6.9 million in annual sales tax revenue.

Cuomo sees the bigger picture. He recognizes that prevailing wage requirements are critical to get the best return on investment for taxpayer dollars and create jobs that serve New Yorkers rather than exploit them as many developers would do if it were up to them. Without these mandates and a clearer definition of public works, developers will continue to capitalize on loopholes in definitions of private projects and a lack of accountability to workers and taxpayers alike.

It’s up to Albany to do what is right for New York and pass public-works legislation before April 1. Tick tock.

Patrick Purcell is executive director of the New York State Laborers’ Union, which represents more than 40,000 construction workers

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Rep. Christine Chandler Champions Fair Wages Bill To Prevent Wage Theft … Now Heads To House Floor (NM)

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Submitted by Carol A. Clark on February 23, 2019 – 8:34am

SANTA FE – The House Judiciary Committee passed Rep. Christine Chandler’s (D-Los Alamos) bill Friday to champion fair wages and benefits for workers. House Bill 246, regarding the Prevailing Wage, protects workers adversely affected by wage theft.

House Bill 246 ensures that New Mexicans are paid a fair wage for a hard day’s work by closing loopholes, providing a complaint resolution process, and increases penalties for violations. Addressing these issues in the Prevailing Wage law will keep jobs local, workplaces safe, and ensure quality workmanship in public projects.

Specifically, the bill makes certain that all employees working on public works projects are compensated fully. The bill also provides a process for workers to initiate prevailing wage complaints, and a mechanism for complaint resolution. House Bill 246 also increases penalties for those who do not properly compensate workers according to the Public Works Minimum Wage Act.

“Wage theft and treating workers unfairly undermines New Mexico’s economy. This legislation protects workers from exploitation and ensures they receive their hard-earned paychecks,” Rep. Chandler said. “Wage theft runs contrary to our values as New Mexicans, and I am proud to see this legislation move forward for working families.”

House Bill 246 now heads to the House floor.

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Financial Fraud and Wage Theft Continue to Plague Construction Industry

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Cases of fraud and wage violations continue to soil the image of the construction industry during this labor shortage

The National Law Review
FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Every week there seems to be yet another item in the news about contractors being charged with fraud, wage theft and more. This week is no different, unfortunately. 

In Arkansas, Matthew Beasley, President of Cobas, Inc. construction company in Conway, AK, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for defrauding a bank by creating fraudulent invoices. According to the Unisted Sates Department of Justice press release, Cobas would perform construction work for other companies and send invoices for that work.

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Meanwhile in Massachusetts, a state that has been under scrutiny for construction wage theft, Attorney General Maura Healy issued 165 civil citations against 66 construction companies in 2018. According to a press release from the Attorney General, restitution in 2018 exceeded $1.47 million for more than 1,030 employees, and the companies were fined more than $1.23 million.

Violations included:

  • Failure to page proper wages
  • Failure to pay overtime
  • Retaliation
  • Failure to furnish records for inspection
  • Failure to pay prevailing wage
  • failure to submit true and accurate certified payroll records
  • Failure to register and pay apprentices appropriately

“Workers in the construction industry are particularly vulnerable to wage theft from dishonest contractors who cheat their workers,” said AG Healey. “As Massachusetts undergoes a historic construction boom, my office will continue to fight for exploited workers and ensure they are paid the wages they earn.”

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