Workers’ Rights Law Center Blog

According to an article in yesterday’s Chicago Sun Times, the National Employment Law Project’s Cathy Ruckelshaus testified in front of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections on the subject of independent contractor misclassification. Cathy recommended that the U.S. Department of Labor:

• Conduct proactive audits of problem industries with persistent violators, and share data with the unemployment insurance arm of the department.

• Be required to share information on independent contractor problems, and coordinate with the Internal Revenue Service.

• Mandate seizing goods produced under substandard conditions and where misclassification has taken place.

The Workers’ Rights Law Center has confronted overt misclassification of workers as independent contractors in several of our cases in a variety of industries, from construction to janitorial to food service. Misclassification does not just impede enforcement of wage and hour, employment discrimination, and other worker protections. It is also a concern for organized labor. Employers in industries with high concentrations of unionized workplaces will often misclassify their workers as independent contractors to stave off labor organizing campaigns.

We fully agree with NELP’s recommendations, and we applaud their efforts. It is time for employers to stop defrauding workers, the government, and organized labor.

Click here to view the Chicago Sun Times article: Steps urged to prevent misclassification of workers .

We just learned that Ani DiFranco and Righteous Babe Records will donate some autographed materials for our May 1 silent auction.  These items should be hot, so come prepared to bid!

Dear friends of the WRLC:

It is only slightly more than a month until the WRLC’s first annual dinner and silent auction on May 1st at Backstage Productions.  Invitations go in the mail on Monday, so keep an eye out  and get your tickets soon!  If you can’t make it on May 1st, there are still plenty of ways to support the event.  The invitation includes the option to purchase a journal ad, so please consider that. 

Also, we’re still soliciting silent auction items.  We have received some terrific items for our May 1st silent auction already — our sincere thanks to the Hudson Valley School of Massage, Partners in Massage, Terrapin restaurant, Kavitha Rao, Nan Tepper, Common Fire co-op, Skytop Restaurant, Upstate Films, Yoga on Duck Pond, Tinker Tube rentals, Brotherhood winery, Ameribags, the Depuy Canal House for their contributions.

If there is a local business that you could approach for a donation for the WRLC, or if you have an item you could donate to the WRLC, please let us know. 

Meanwhile, our spring 07 newsletter is off to the printer.  We are very grateful to Mizue Aizeki, our volunteer graphic designer, who once again did a terrific job designing the newsletter.  Thanks Mizue!

 – Tricia

http://www.wordreference.com/ is a helpful online English-Spanish-Italian-French dictionary. I use it often.

The National Employment Law Project has some helpful materials on their website about protecting the right to be paid:

Protecting Your Right to get Paid—How to Keep Good Wage and Hour Records

Your Right to be Paid — Fact Sheet for Workers

In Cuzco v. Orion Builders, Inc., the Court granted the WRLC’s motion on behalf of the Plaintiff to pre-certify the case as a representative action for minimum wage and overtime claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Court also allowed the Plaintiff to amend the Complaint to convert the Plaintiff’s individual New York Labor Law claims to Rule 23 class claims. Click HERE to download the decision. We’ll provide a cite for the decision once it is published. We will also post a link to the FLSA class notice once we have translated it to Spanish.

The strong decision granting the WRLC’s Rule 23/FLSA class certification motion in Iglesias-Mendoza v. La Belle Farm, Inc. is now published in the Federal Rules Digest. The cite is 239 F.R.D. 363 (S.D.N.Y. 2007).

Immediately proceeding the Iglesias-Mendoza decision in the F.R.D. is the Court’s decision granting in part the Plaintiffs’ (represented by WRLC, FLSNY, and Kaye Scholer) motion for leave to amend the complaint in Javier H. v. Maria Garcia-Botello, a human trafficking case. Among other things, the Court allowed the Plaintiffs to add civil RICO claims against four of the “grower defendants.” The cite is 239 F.R.D. 342 (W.D.N.Y. 2006).

This article in the Legislative Gazette quotes the WRLC’s Dan Werner and discusses two of the WRLC’s human trafficking cases:  Human rights advocates pushing for anti-trafficking laws

The Court has just authorized distribution of the class notice in the Luis v. Peppy’s Foods, Inc. case.   Check our website for copies of the class notice in English and Spanish.

– Tricia

More from the National Immigration Law Center — they have three new and informative fact sheets posted on their website:

• State and Local Proposals That Punish Employers for Hiring Undocumented Workers Are Unenforceable, Unnecessary, and Bad Public Policy.

• TALKING POINTS: Oppose State and Local Proposals to Make Basic Pilot Mandatory - (Note: This is the one-page version of the longer fact sheet.

• Facts about the IMAGE Program: ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers.

The National Immigration Law Center has issued a report of its legislative priorities to improve the lives of immigrant workers (click the following link):  COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM, Legislative Priorities for Immigrant Workers

The WRLC supports these priorities.