Workers’ Compensation: Fighting For The Rights Of Immigrant Workers

It looks like Long Island is literally becoming the “Land Of The Free”. Well, almost free labor that is. In fact, there have been recent reports of thousands of (immigrant) workers, who ARE trying to advance and make a better life for themselves, being cheated out of their rightful earnings as many employers fail to pay minimum wage or overtime. And, they suggest the problem is so prevalent that it’s becoming an epidemic.

Furthermore, several groups led by Manhattan-based New York Immigration Coalition noted that the approach to wage enforcement was so inadequate that it’s actually costing the government million in tax revenue that it could collect if employers actually paid legal wages.

They note that such exploitation is so rampant that is hindering the economic success of New York. They go on to call official to reform the way the labor department implements wage laws.

They point out that most of the “abuse” takes place in grocery stores, garment factories, restaurants, and other businesses that are premised on strenuous and manual labor.

However, officials from the state Labor Department defended he agency’s handling of unpaid wages, suggesting that collections “did” increase over the past year, by nearly 40 percent, for an estimated $7.5 million to about $10.4 million/ They further noted that the department had deployed a sweep of businesses suspected of violating wage laws, as well as increasing outreach to community groups.

Still, immigration groups remain “unsatisfied” and are asking the more be done, especially with educating hard-working, law-abiding immigrants about their rights, and, with 67 percent of domestic workers receiving no overtime despite long hours, helping them recoup (lost) wages that are rightfully theirs.