Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, May 25, 2012

This Week in Poverty: Wage Theft in the City of Millionaires

For two years running Houston has added more millionaires to its population than any other city in the United States. Near-millionaires are enjoying some nice upward mobility, especially those involved in the oil and gas industry.

Low-wage workers, on the other hand, aren’t faring too well in the city. In fact, a recent report from Houston Interfaith Worker Justice (HIWJ) estimates that low-wage workers lose $753.2 million annually due to wage theft. Wage theft can occur in many ways, including: workers being denied the minimum wage or overtime pay; stolen tips; illegal deductions from paychecks; people being forced to work off the clock; or workers getting misclassified as independent contractors so they aren’t entitled to overtime or benefits.

“We’re not talking about a worker here or a worker there, it’s something that has a lot of ripple effects,” says José Eduardo Sanchez, campaign organizer with HIWJ. “It impacts families, communities and local economies.”

Although there are laws on the books against wage theft, there are problems with understaffing, enforcement, and jurisdiction disputes in institutions like the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the courts.

HIWJ—a nonprofit organization helping low-wage workers learn about their workplace rights and organizing to improve working conditions—recently took decisive action. The group drafted an ordinance that would protect workers from retaliation for reporting violations; allow workers who file a complaint to receive a fair hearing; and require employers to pay back not only the stolen wages but also damages, in order to create a real disincentive for repeat offenses. Currently, an employer in Houston only needs to pay the wages owed and then can move on. Why wouldn’t a bad actor simply repeat the behavior and hope to get away with it next time?

The city’s Legal Department initially analyzed the proposal and said that wage theft is addressed by state statute. But Mayor Annise Parker’s office contacted HIWJ to express her interest. HIWJ is now working with her administration on policy proposals that would create a process for a fair hearing and link wage theft violations to the suspension and revocation of city licenses, permits and contracts. Other options to collect additional damages from employers are being explored as well.

Sanchez says the mayor’s action was “surprising” given the initial response from the city.

“But now it’s a matter of holding the politicians accountable and really pushing for enforceable aspects of this legislation,” says Sanchez. “Because there’s an easy way for this to become one of those good policies on paper—nice sentiment, nice words—but not enforceable.”

Part of that accountability involves bringing the issue to the forefront of the public’s attention. As Kim Bobo, executive director of the national IWJ has written, “This is the crime that no one talks about.” Sanchez says the campaign has been very successful in getting a broad range of print media and Spanish-language broadcast media to cover the issue and, more recently, mainstream television is reporting on it too.

HIWJ is also working with neighborhoods hit especially hard by wage theft—predominately low-wage and immigrant communities—“to build worker power, build community power, and be able to show that to the mayor,” says Sanchez.

“We need to make it clear that this is not just a bunch of community organizations that think this should happen, but real Houstonians dealing with this, real community businesses dealing with it,” says Sanchez. “We’re also creating an environment where a worker can feel safe in reporting a violation. Because if there’s not a community there for support and to help uphold these rights, then workers will just stay silent.”

Immigrant workers are particularly susceptible to threats by employers. Although immigration status isn’t asked in the process of a wage theft investigation, workers are still often reluctant to come forward.

“We tell workers that regardless of immigration status, everyone has the same right to be paid for their work,” says Sanchez. “We’re working to build trust between workers and enforcement agencies, but in the meantime, we like to serve as mediator between them. So the workers know they have the whole organization, the whole coalition, backing them up.”

Sanchez notes that wage theft in Houston—the nation’s fourth-largest city—“is part of a trend that’s growing in this economy and we need to look at it in the context of the bigger picture.”

Indeed, a 2009 study concluded that in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles alone workers lost $56.4 million per week due to wage theft, a cool $2.5 billion annually. National Interfaith Worker Justice is currently working with local affiliates that are leading campaigns for statewide wage theft ordinances in Iowa and New Jersey, and for local ordinances in Memphis and Grand Rapids. Legislation is also being considered in Arkansas, Denver and a number of counties in Florida. South Florida IWJ led a coalition that helped pass model legislation in Miami-Dade County too.

“We are really building momentum in areas that are not typically considered places where you would think progressive worker legislation would be happening,” says Dianne Enriquez, coordinator of IWJ’s network of twenty-seven worker centers and lead coordinator of the wage theft campaign.

Enriquez notes that the business community is particularly catching on to the importance of cracking down on wage theft. In fact, the Grand Rapids bill was co-authored by a former president of the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

“This is an issue that affects the broader community and it’s rampant across all industries, and different kinds of sectors and workers,” says Enriquez. “It makes sense to level the playing field. It’s good for the community, it’s good for the business community.”

Every day, Enriquez hears about a new campaign that is pushing for local wage theft legislation. She’s confident that these local actions are creating momentum for a push for national legislation in the near future.

“People are tired of waiting for the federal government to put resources into enforcing laws that are on the books,” says Enriquez. “People aren’t getting paid the minimum wage, or any wages in many cases, they’re not getting paid overtime. So it’s exciting to see that this is something that’s really building right now.”

Original Article
Source: the nation
Author: Greg Kaufmann

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