Tough times (2): wage theft and other crimes

I first learned the term “time theft” when I read Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, a first-hand account of low-wage work.  Her last job was working for Wal-Mart, and she was told that any time she spent speaking to a co-worker, or going to the bathroom, or just caching her breath was “time theft” from her employer.

Reading  Steven Greenhouse’s 2008 book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, I learned another term – “wage theft” -  which is about how employers coerce employees into working unpaid overtime or falsify their records so as not to pay for all hours worked.

I knew that undocumented workers – illegal immigrants – constituted an underclass outside the protection of U.S. law that could be exploited at will.  I knew that salaried “professionals” – programmers, college instructors, journalists, lawyers – often worked 60 hours or more a week, sometimes voluntarily but often not.  And I knew that companies found ways to redefine employees as managers or independent contractors to avoid having to obey labor laws.

http://philebersole.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/tough-times-2-wage-theft-and-other-crimes/

 

DMI Blog: The Economics of Labor Exploitation

This striking quote from an anonymous Manhattan restaurant owner illustrates the vulnerable position undocumented immigrants occupy in our labor market. The restaurateur admits to paying undocumented workers less than their due—though he insisted, of course, that this was at least minimum wage. But because these workers are easily threatened with deportation, they are demonstrably less likely to speak out if they are denied minimum wages, meal breaks or safety equipment. And New York City’s restaurant industry is only one breeding ground for such violations. A groundbreaking multi-city report revealed just how these practices pervade occupations and industries throughout the low-wage labor market.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one of the agencies tasked to punish employers who break the law in hiring and abusing undocumented workers. And since last year, ICE has publicly shifted its focus from high-profile raids and mass arrests of these workers to behind-the-scenes criminal investigations of employers that rely on and exploit their labor. According to statistics from the agency, it has investigated over 2,070 businesses as of July 31, far more than the 1,500 conducted in 2009.

One such investigation culminated in charges against a Miami ….

http://www.dmiblog.com/archives/2010/09/post_86.html

 

 

 

In These Times: Immigrants Drive Campaign to Unionize L.A. Car Washes

The car wash is the quintessential symbol of American exuberance. Nothing speaks to our freewheeling consumer culture like our obsession with shampooing, waxing and pimping our rides for the world to see. But in the gleaming car capital of the world, Los Angeles, carwash workers are driving a movement to expose rampant abuses in one of the city's dirtiest jobs.

As the New York Times' Steven Greenhouse pointed out, L.A.'s car washes seem "an unlikely target for a unionization drive," since the sector is dominated by relatively small enterprises and runs on the cheap sweat of immigrants, many of them undocumented.

http://inthesetimes.org/working/entry/6423/immigrants_drive_campaign_to_unionize_l.a._car_washes/

 

Miami Herald: Protecting the poorest

The Miami-Dade County Commission will vote Friday to officially implement its Wage Theft Program, which helps low-paid workers recover earnings when they've been stiffed by unscrupulous employers.

The first of its kind in the state, the innovative program is being watched all over the country. Too bad today's action is a hollow exercise: No funds have been designated to keep it going.

Wage theft is a critical problem for low-income workers. Day laborers, hospitality, restaurant and retail workers recount horror stories of working weeks -- or even months -- without pay. With the economy in such bad shape, they fear quitting.

Until this year, they have had nowhere to turn. The County Commission made wage theft illegal, and in February passed an ordinance that gave exploited workers an advocate to negotiate on their behalf: the county's Small…

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/10/1816927/protecting-the-poorest.html#ixzz0z8XgCnU2

 

IthacaJournal: Former Collegetown cafe owner fined

The owner of the short-lived Green Cafe in Collegetown has been fined almost $1 million by the New York State Department of Labor for unpaid back wages at the Ithaca location and at a still-open deli in New York City.

The state DOL began investigating restaurant owner Charles B. Park last fall after the Tompkins County Workers' Center filed a complaint on behalf of workers.

Anna Ottoson worked as a cashier at the Green Cafe at 330 College Ave. where she became friends with some of the Latino back-of-the-house workers. Though Ottoson and other front-of-the-house workers were always paid on time and in full and received normal time off, she soon learned that the Latino workers were not being paid in full and never given a day of rest, she said.

Ottoson said she encouraged the Latino workers to talk to Park and insist on having at least one day of rest per week. Park repeatedly told the workers he'd let…

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20100903/NEWS01/9030379/Former-Collegetown-cafe-owner-fined-1-million-for-unpaid-wages

 

OregonCenterforPP: Wage Theft Robs Workers and the Economy

Payday arrived, but the paychecks did not.

The news broke last month of a dozen workers scrubbing floors at a Safeway warehouse in Clackamas who claim that the temp agency that hired them repeatedly failed to pay. Fortunately for them, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries negotiated with Safeway payment of the wages owed, while the bureau considers going after the temp agency.

Unfortunately, though it rarely makes news, wage theft is all too common these days. And it is making life more difficult for many workers who already earn too little.

Wage theft affects a significant share of the lowest-paid workers. In a landmark study published earlier this year, researchers from the National Employment Law Project surveyed workers in low-wage industries in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. They found that a quarter of these workers — one out of four — were paid less than minimum wage in the previous work week.

The fleecing of workers did not end there. Of the workers who reported putting in more than 40 hours a week, three-quarters of them said they did not receive overtime pay to which they would be entitled. And 70 percent of those who worked beyond their regular shift, either coming in early or staying late, reported not getting paid for their…

http://www.ocpp.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?page=cp201008WageThef

 

 

WashingtonIndependent: Workers Rebuilding New Orleans Face Rampant Wage Theft

Jacinta Gonzalez, an organizer with the Congress of Day Laborers in New Orleans, tells a story about the abuse of workers rebuilding the city after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. She once met a man who went to his employer’s house to demand payment for his labor on a construction site after the employer stiffed him of his dues. The man’s boss came at him, swinging a hammer. The worker immediately called the police.

When they showed up, she says, the first thing they did was ask for his immigration status. “These are the sort of situations that prevent day laborers from asking for help when their wages are denied,” Gonzalez says.

The politics of immigration are thorny, but it is a simple truth that construction companies routinely use day laborers without checking their immigration status: Thousands of those workers have helped and are helping to rebuild New Orleans. But those workers commonly suffer abuse due to their immigration status, including threats of violence and wage theft. Despite the best efforts of workers’ rights groups, five years after the hurricane, advocates say abuse remains rampant. Now, those groups are calling for specific legislation to protect vulnerable workers — documented and not — and to make sure they get their due.

After Hurricane Katrina, the number of undocumented workers in New Orleans increased …

http://washingtonindependent.com/96411/workers-rebuilding-new-orleans-face-rampant-wage-theft