Healey, Campbell push legislation to fight wage theft

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

State House News Service
September 20, 2023

Vulnerable workers, including immigrants who do not know their rights or are fearful of employer retaliation, could gain stronger protections against pervasive wage theft under legislation that is supported by Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell and Gov. Maura T. Healey but has failed to win over Democrats on Beacon Hill for years.

Campbell on Sept. 19 publicly voiced her support for proposals that would strengthen her office’s authority to crack down on wage theft and protect Massachusetts from lost economic growth, jobs, and taxes. The latest version of the bill is being billed as a compromise between labor and business.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Daniel Donahue and Sen. Sal DiDomenico (H. 1868 / S. 1158) would allow Campbell to file a civil action seeking injunctive relief for damages, lost wages, and other benefits for workers. Campbell also would have the authority to investigate wage theft complaints and seek civil remedies for violations, as well as to issue stop-work orders against contractors or businesses who are violating wage theft provisions.

“Access to a decent paying job and benefits is absolutely essential to ensuring economic security for individuals and their families,” Campbell told the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development during a hearing on Sept. 19. “We know passing a strong, and smart, and effective wage bill is crucial.”

Some $1 billion in wages are stolen each year in the commonwealth by employers and contractors, and workers recoup less than 2 percent of their stolen pay, according to data from the Wage Theft Coalition led by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. When DiDomenico first filed his bill in 2015, stolen wages totaled roughly $300 million, he told the committee.

 

Read More

Gov. Cuomo signs new legislation making it easier for workers and the state Labor Department to fight wage theft

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Sunday, January 4, 2015, 2:00 AM 

It feels good to be able to write about something positive for New York workers in my first column of 2015. After all, measures that benefit them and rein in abuses by their bosses are as rare as snow in August.

It took a long time but on Monday Gov. Cuomo gave a last-minute Christmas gift to hundreds of thousands of low-wage laborers across the state by signing legislation making it easier for workers and the state Department of Labor to fight wage theft, which in New York has been an epidemic for many years.

“I am tired of waiting,” said Marcos Lino, who filed a complaint with the Department of Labor in 2008 after enduring four years of being shortchanged by his boss in a small Flushing grocery store. Six years have passed and his case is still unresolved.

Hopefully now Lino – and thousands more who, like him, have waited far too long to recover what is rightfully theirs – will finally get some justice.

“The groundbreaking legislation signed today will protect both workers from abuse, and law-abiding businesses from being undercut by employers who turn a profit by breaking the law,” said Andrew Friedman, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy.

(Read More)

OSHA: Hanford Contractor Must Pay $220,000 in Back Wages to Whistleblower

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

A contractor for the Department of Energy’s decommissioned Hanford nuclear site in Washington state has been ordered to reinstate an environmental specialist and pay more than $220,000 in back wages and other expenses after it fired the employee for voicing nuclear and environmental safety concerns.

OSHA took the actions against Washington River Protection Solutions after the employee repeatedly reported nuclear and environmental safety and permit and record keeping violations. When the employer advertised the vacant position, the employer refused to rehire the employee despite adequate qualifications and previous satisfactory performance reviews, according to OSHA.

“The people most able to identify hazards are often the workers who are threatened by them,” said Galen Lemke, OSHA’s acting regional administrator. “Employees must never be punished for sounding an alarm when they see a problem that could injure, sicken or kill someone, or harm the environment.”

(Read More)

Leggett proposes pay-equity law for male, female contractors in Montgomery County

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Contractors working for Montgomery County would be required to show that they pay men and women equally and do not retaliate against workers who share salary information under legislation introduced Tuesday by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D).

A handful of states, including New Mexico and Minnesota, have laws requiring pay equity for contract workers and government employees. Other states, including New Jersey, have outlawed retaliation against workers for sharing pay information.

But advocates for pay equity said Tuesday that if Leggett’s proposal is approved by the County Council, Montgomery would be the first municipal government to establish such requirements for contractors.

(Read More)

(Copy of Bill 29-14)

OSHA Head: Some Valid Whistleblower Claims Tossed

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

The head of the agency that runs the U.S. Department of Labor’s whistleblower program said strict time frames dictated by an older whistleblower law lead the agency to dismiss more than 200 cases a year, some of which have merit.

Assistant secretary for labor for occupational safety and health David Michaels asked lawmakers Tuesday to pass legislation giving some prospective whistleblowers more than 30 days to file complaints.

“The statute of limitations is a very serious problem,” said Mr. Michaels in a Tuesday hearing by a subcommittee of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“There are [more than] 200 cases a year which we dismiss simply because they’re untimely. Some of them involve what we think are very meritorious cases of workers who file 32, 34, 35 days after the event. That simply isn’t fair,” he said

(Read More)

Obama Seeks Wage Transparency With Executive Orders

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

President Barack Obama will commemorate Equal Pay Day on Tuesday by signing two executive orders aimed at achieving pay equity among federal contractors, which make up an estimated one-quarter of the U.S. workforce.

The first executive order will prevent federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss how much money they make, as many employers have contracts prohibiting workers from disclosing information about their salaries, White House officials said during a conference call with reporters on Monday. The second executive order involves requiring federal contractors to disclose compensation data to the Department of Labor to increase transparency on payment for women and minorities, Betsey Stevenson, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said during the call.

(Read More)