Workers who have been exploited and swindled out of thousands of dollars in wage theft urgently called on state legislators to pass SWEAT (Securing Earned Wages Against Theft – S1977/A46).
Passage of this measure would serve to end rampant pay theft and end a broken system plaguing New York State, where more than $2 billion is stolen and workers harmed each year.
On May 25, workers testified at the state Senate public hearing on wage theft to show why they urgently need to pass the provisions of the SWEAT bill to end the abuse of business and industrial employers.
The SWEAT bill, sponsored by Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, would give employees much-needed tools to ensure they can truly earn their fair wages.
They hide their assets
Today, bosses can commit their abuses by breaking the law by hiding their assets, so even when workers win their cases, business owners never have to pay a dime. When bosses discover that employees are taking steps to recover their stolen wages, they transfer their businesses, homes, and other property to others, hide their assets, and close their workplaces but then put it back in business under a new name. There is little that workers, their advocates and even the government can do to hold these individuals accountable for breaking the law. Wage theft has become the normal way of doing business, creating lawlessness as more and more employers are ripped off by lawbreakers and workers find that there is currently no protection in the law.
ask for support
The workers called on elected officials to support honest employees and businesses, instead of allowing wage scammers to break the law. They dismissed the misinformation spread by the Hospitality Alliance and other bodies that shamefully block the SWEAT bill to protect bosses from underground jobs. Workers will protest the NYC Hospitality Alliance if it continues to hold back passage of this important bill.
Virginio Caballero de Jesús, who worked at the Indus Valley restaurant 36 hours a week and was paid just $20 a day, won a lawsuit against his boss for wage theft, but he and his co-workers are still owed $590,000.
“We started a protest outside the Indus Valley however after about six months the boss changed the name to Manhattan Valley and claimed it was a different business and not responsible for our stolen wages. It was a lie! The boss, Lahkvir Singh, was still cooking inside. The menu, the decoration, even the name on the delivery bags were the same. I’m angry that the Hospitality Alliance protects these bosses who steal so much from the workers!” Caballero, one of those affected by the robbery, revealed. of wages.
Sandra Mejía, who worked at Liox/Wash Supply laundromat six days a week and only earned $12 an hour, was never paid for overtime or sick leave or meal breaks.
“After suing the company and winning our independent union, the employer closed the laundromat, fired all the workers and took all the machines. He then closed a second location and rented another location under a different name. On May 27, 2021, we won our wage theft case in court for noncompliance. The judge determined that the company owed me and my five co-workers $819,585.30. In response, the employer decided to file for bankruptcy and avoid liability. So far, we haven’t recovered a single penny. Yeah [SWEAT] existed when my coworkers and I demanded our rights, I would be sharing another story. This bill would prevent bad guys from committing wage theft, as happened at LIOX/Wash Supply. SWEAT can end the cycle of poverty and abuse that wage theft causes,” said Mejía.
Carlos Herrera, who worked in a restaurant and experienced many previous cases of wage theft said: “It is the Hospitality Alliance that is spreading lies about workers and delaying and blocking SWEAT. Why are they protecting the criminal kingpins who steal our wages? We are going to protest outside the Hospitality Alliance next Friday June 2nd if they keep blocking SWEAT because we have had enough. They make a joke out of labor law.”