Immigrant workers ask for equality on the job

By Tanya De Jesús

Ideally all workers have the basic human right to be treated with respect and dignity at their job. Yet immigrants find themselves having employers who violate these ideals.

The National Immigration Law Center states that federal and state labor and employment laws protect all workers, regardless of their immigration status. These laws give undocumented immigrants rights under state and federal wage and hour, health and safety, and anti-discrimination laws. These workers are also protected in their right to form a union. However, Joanne Goldstein, of the Massachusetts' Attorney General's Fair Labor Division, said a high number of labor complaints are reported in Massachusetts. In 2006 immigrants, represented about 14 percent of the Massachusetts population. Goldstein said that one out of five complaints received by the Fair Labor Division come from immigrant workers. Jennifer Doe, a Massachusetts Jobs with Justice organizer, argued the state's laws don't really protect immigrants like they should.

"Because our laws are more punitive than they are protective, what ends up happening is undocumented workers feel trapped in their working conditions," Doe said. "They feel like they can't complain and as a result they are exploited." 

Click below to find out what rights immigrant workers have and what are the most common problems they face. 

Goldstein said one of the most common cases of labor law violations in Massachusetts is wage theft. This would include employers who pay workers less than the $8 minimum wage required by the federal Minimum Fair Wage Law. It would also include cases where the workers don't get paid overtime. The Fair Wage Law states that most employees must be paid one and one-half times their regular hourly rate for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a given work week. However, the state law doesn't require overtime after eight hours in a day. In most wage theft cases, Doe said the employer fails to give workers their paychecks at all.

"They end up not getting paid at the end of the week and being told that if they complain about not getting their paycheck they would be deported," Doe said, adding," that creates a climate of fear and harassment and as a result it hurts other workers.".

In the past year, the Fair Labor Division has handled more than 3,000 cases of wage theft involving immigrants.

"We've seen an enormous up-tic in cases since the economy's downturn with bankruptcies and business closing," Goldstein said.  "Workers who often fear retaliation by employers for complaining about wage-and-hour cases fear even greater the potential of losing their jobs," she said.

Fernando Cervantes, an immigrant from Mexico, said he was a victim of wage theft when he was working as a janitor for the Coverall cleaning company. He worked around 10 hours a day for $6 an hour without getting paid overtime and he felt that he was being exploited because of his undocumented status. One day, Cervantes said the company "disappeared" and ended up owing him and his co-workers their paychecks. Afterwards, with the help of immigrant organizations like Centro Presente and the Chelsea Collaborative, they got to negotiate with the cleaning company and received a portion of what was owed to them. Cervantes can't understand why a country founded on liberty and freedom would stand for such abuses.

"I don't understand why this type of employer behavior continues to happen, where workers get abused, people can't stand up for their rights or get any benefits from their work," he said. "It just continues."

Cervantes thinks a good way to start preventing labor law violations is by educating the immigrant community on the matter.

"First of all, we should have an education campaign to the immigrant community so they can know their rights and know how to defend themselves," he said. "At first, I didn't know any of my rights. The rights I know now that I have are because of the two organizations that helped us in the case," said Cervantes.

Like Cervantes, several immigrants have said they have been taken advantage by their employers in the cleaning and hospitality employment sectors. In August 31^st, 2009, 100 housekeepers, which 98 percent of them were immigrants, got laid off from three Hyatt hotels in the Boston area without any given reason. At the end of the day's work, Hyatt managers fired the housekeeping staff and replaced them with temporary workers from the Georgia-based Hospitality Staffing Solutions. During previous weeks, the housekeepers had to train their own replacements after the managers told them the new employees would cover their shifts when they were on vacation.

These actions sparked outrage in the hospitality business and among government leaders. Gov. Deval Patrick took a step forward in the case and pleaded to Hyatt managers for reconsideration of the layoffs. The workers and their advocates took action in asking for support on legislation that will provide day laborers and temporary workers with better job protections, establish paid sick days and enforce wage compliance. The Hyatt responded with a statement that said, "We are providing the affected associates with assistance, including severance and outplacement counseling. Hyatt is committed to treating our employees with honesty and respect."

Duipattie Junga was one of the 100 housekeepers, who got laid off from the hotel chain. She worked at the Hyatt for 20 years and is still shocked by the way the managers, including her own, handled the situation.

"He said 'I'm going to go straight to the point. The hotel is making no money.' He said something like revenue not coming in. Everyone was like, we've been working five days for the past two years and it has never been slow," Junga said.

She also mentioned that after their meeting with the manager was over, they weren't even given time to gather all their belongings before leaving the hotel.

"They said you cannot go back upstairs even if you haven't finished your room, you're not going back. So when we were coming out the door we were given like a trash bag and they said, 'clear your locker,'" said Junga. "I said, 'Are we not going up to get our stuff?' He said, 'No, you cannot go anywhere. Just get what you have in your locker."

Click below to listen to Duipattie Junga talk about the sequence of events that led to the Hyatt layoffs.

Edwin Argueta, a Massachusetts Jobs with Justice organizer, thinks that neither the laid-off housekeepers nor their replacements are being treated with respect and therefore the Hyatt are committing double violations of workers rights.

"This new group of workers were being replaced at a lower wage than what they have been paid for. They were brought in by a temp agency that had history of violations in terms of nonpayment of wages," said Edwin Argueta, a Massachusetts Jobs with Justice organizer.

Three pieces of legislation have been proposed on Beacon Hill to prevent cases like the Hyatt and Coverall from reoccurring. All three bills had hearings this past fall before the Legislature's Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. Audrey Richardson, from Greater Boston Legal Services, said the Temporary Workers Right to Know bill would protect temporary workers who are sent off to work without knowing basic things about their jobs. The bill would require that a temporary agency give a worker basic information about the job they are being hired for in the language which the temporary agency usually communicates with the worker. Sen. Jack Hart and Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry are among the legislation's supporters.

Legislators also are evaluating proposed legislation that requires uniform wage compliance and recordkeeping. The proposed bill would provide three years for workers to recover wages that have been denied rather than the two years currently allowed.

A third proposal, the Paid Sick Days Act, was introduced by Rep. Kay Khan that  would allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days per year. Richardson said that more than 40 percent of the state's private sector workers now don't have even one guaranteed paid sick day.

Click below to listen to a complete description of the three bills.

Goldstein said the Massachusetts government has been working hard to prevent workers rights violations in the workplace. She said that the state Attorney General's Office under both  Martha Coakley and her predecessor  Thomas Reilly had its Fair Labor Division make partnerships with the workers rights community so that workers feel more comfortable and secure when they are coming forward with a complaint.

"Coakley and Reilly as well had a policy of not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement authorities in the past years. So we are proud that that is the case and that immigrant workers are treated and protected the same way all residents of Massachusetts are," said Goldstein. As for the workers rights legislation now under review on Beacon Hill, Richardson said the next step is to get the bills favorably reported out of committee and have the Labor and Workforce Development Committee recommend that they move forward to the full Legislature.