NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | February 19, 2016 | PAGE 3
Oregon labor organizations have
joined the Oregon Coalition to
Stop Wage Theft, along with 30
lawmakers, because many other civic, religious and small
workers face language barriers, business organizations.
In 2015, the coalition helped
fear retaliation from their em-
draft
a bill to crack down on
ployers, and can’t afford legal
wage
theft, but it never got a
representation.
vote
on
the Senate floor, and
In a way, it’s almost a surprise
died
in
the
Senate Rules Com-
that so many employers remain
mittee.
Labor
allies thought it
law-abiding — given how poorly
was
a
scandal
that the Demo-
staffed BOLI’s wage and hour
c
ratic-domi-
enforcement
nated
Legisla-
operation is:
ture
would
punt
Seven com-
“We have to make it
on
a
wage
theft
pliance spe-
possible for workers to
crackdown. The
cialists en-
enforce their own claim
labor-backed
force wage
to
wages.
”
Fair Shot coali-
and hour laws
tion — which
— Michael Dale, executive
for all Oregon
succeeded in
director of the Northwest
workers. Ac-
Worker
Justice
Project
passing sick
cording to a
leave legislation
recent analy-
in 2015 — de-
sis by the
clared wage
Oregon Cen-
theft
would
be
one
of its priori-
ter for Public Policy, there are
ties
in
2016.
more than 58,000 workers for
Now it’s half way through the
every full-time staff member in
short
2016 legislative session.
BOLI’s Wage and Hour Divi-
Senate
Democrats have an 18-
sion. Those staff levels have got-
12
majority,
but Senate Presi-
ten much worse over the years:
dent
Peter
Courtney
(D-Salem)
20 years ago, the figure was
has
said
(with
a
few
exceptions)
28,500 workers for every staff
he won’t allow votes on any bill
member.
Imagine if word got out that without bipartisan support.
local law enforcement didn’t Wage theft isn’t one of the ex-
have resources to investigate ceptions. To win the votes of
and prosecute car thefts. Grand Republican legislators like state
theft auto would soar. That’s Sen. Kim Thatcher, it takes busi-
what’s happening in wage theft, ness support.
To get it, Workforce Commit-
worker advocates say.
tee
Chair Michael Dembrow
And when corruption takes
hold in industries, bad competi-
tors drive out the good. Wage
theft is most common in three
industries: restaurants, farms,
and construction.
At Bricklayers and Allied
Craftworkers Local 1, President
Matt Eleazer and field rep Mike
Titus say wage theft is becom-
ing worse in their trade. Local 1
represents bricklayers, stone
masons, tilesetters, and other
workers in Oregon,Washington,
Idaho, Montana, and Alaska.
And the dirty little secret of the
construction industry is that
union representatives like Titus
and Eleazer are spending more
and more of their time policing
their industries.
“If we’re not doing it [polic-
ing the industry], those guys are
bidding against our contractors,
and it’s not fair,” Eleazer says.
“And we don’t catch a frac-
tion of what’s going on,” Titus
adds.
Increasingly, worker advo-
cates have been raising the alarm
about wage theft — and calling
for government to crack down.
To push for stronger laws, the
Oregon AFL-CIO and six other
...Wage theft
From Page 1
the paychecks stopped coming,
Sanderson kept working, and
lived off savings. By the time he
left, he estimates he was owed
over $12,000 — not counting
the overtime pay.
Armando Robledo, a carpet
installer from California, started
in May and tells a similar story.
He, at least, got $25 an hour, un-
til the checks stopped coming.
All three said RCI deducted
money for income tax withhold-
ing, but as of mid-February,
none had received an IRS form
W-2, which by law must be
mailed out to employees no later
than Jan. 31.
RCI — based in Spanaway,
Washington — doesn’t have a
contractor’s license in Oregon.
Calls by the Labor Press to the
company went unreturned.
The general contractor on the
project is FDR Construction, a
California company specializing
in hotel remodels. FDR has
done work for some of the
biggest names in the industry.
Reached by phone, FDR presi-
dent Forrest Reardon said the
unpaid wages aren’t his com-
pany’s responsibility — Rear-
don said RCI was paid every-
thing it was owed. In fact,
Reardon said RCI owes FDR
tens of thousands of dollars for
not finishing the job: A ballroom
and ADA-compliant rooms
were left undone.
But Hilditch, Sanderson, and
Robledo say FDR is also to
blame: Its project manager
promised they’d be paid if they
stayed to finish the job, and that
didn’t happen.
What happened to the RCI
workers is theft — wage theft.
Wage theft is a catch-all term for
the myriad ways workers are
cheated of the wages they are
owed. And it’s becoming more
and more common around the
country. At a hearing last month
of the Oregon Senate Workforce
Committee, attorney Laura
Huizar of the National Employ-
ment Law Project said wage
theft has become widespread
across the country and across in-
dustries, costing workers bil-
lions of dollars each year. In
Oregon, the 1,100 workers a
year who figure out how to file
wage and hour complaints with
the state Bureau of Labor and
Industries (BOLI) are likely the
tip of the iceberg, Huizar told
(D-Portland) stripped out any
part of the 2015 bill that busi-
ness groups had objected to.
What remained: Funding for
three more BOLI positions
(bringing it up to 10), making it
a felony to cheat workers on
public construction projects that
are supposed to pay prevailing
wage, and requiring employers
to make payroll records avail-
able on request to employees.
But that still wasn’t enough to
satisfy business groups. At a
Jan. 16 hearing on the bill, As-
sociated Oregon Industries vice
president Betsy Earls said the
bill “imposes new regulatory
burdens and liabilities” and
caused “consternation in the
business lobby.” Specifically,
giving workers the right to sue
employers for not turning over
records, “creates a significant
private burden without clear
public benefit,” Earls told com-
mittee members.
Dembrow kept the require-
ment to keep and make avail-
able records, but stripped out the
language to make it enforceable.
The bill was so watered down
that the Oregon Coalition to
Stop Wage Theft — the group
that had called on the Legisla-
ture to crack down on wage
theft — declared a “neutral”
stance on the bill, neither sup-
porting nor opposing. Coalition
point person Michael Dale says
there’s nothing wrong with
making prevailing wage viola-
If you are hurt on a
construction site and
another contractor had
control over the work
that injured you, you
may be able to sue that
company for your
injuries in addition to
making your workers’
compensation claim.
tions a felony.
“The problem is that it’s go-
ing to be very difficult to get a
district attorney to prosecute
these guys and put them away
for five years,” Dale said. “In
our experience, stealing from
workers isn’t treated as impor-
tant as other kinds of criminal
activity.”
That’s certainly been Hild-
itch’s experience. If he had
stolen a $43,000 forklift from
the job site, that would be a
Class B felony, and he’d face a
prison sentence for first degree
aggravated theft.
After the Embassy Suites job
ended in December, Hilditch,
Sanderson, Robledo and two
other RCI workers filed wage
complaints with BOLI. An
agency spokesperson confirmed
BOLI is investigating the
claims, which total $46,395.75.
Dale said giving BOLI more
resources is good, but isn’t go-
ing to solve the problem. “You
have to give workers the tools so
either they themselves, or with
a union or community organiza-
tion supporting them, or with
their lawyers, can enforce their
right to recover wages on their
own, without having to rely on
a government agency…. We
have to make it possible for
workers to enforce their own
claim to wages.”
Dale says the coalition will
push a stronger bill in the 2017
legislative session.