On this, labor unions and lawmakers agree: Wage theft is rampant in California, and the state system set as much as assist robbed employees is damaged.
However a Bay Space lawmaker’s name for an impartial state investigation into what’s gone improper has introduced opposition from, of all locations, California’s highly effective labor unions. The unions are trying to dam the motion when lawmakers from the Senate and Meeting meet Wednesday to think about audit requests.
State Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda), who proposed the investigation in January, stated he’s shocked.
“It’s ironic to have the unions opposing a second set of eyes on this major problem,” Glazer stated by cellphone.
Glazer’s workplace stated state officers informed them employees with wage theft claims presently should wait greater than two years — 780 days — for a listening to earlier than the Division of Industrial Relations, the state’s labor company.
State legislation requires hearings to be held inside 120 days.
The backlog, in addition to the labor division’s wrestle to fill job vacancies within the wage theft unit, have lengthy been the topic of legislative hearings and administrative guarantees of motion.
It’s time, Glazer stated, “to get an unvarnished image.”
“Generally,” Glazer stated, “the issue recognized is just not one the administration needs to come clean with. … It might not be so simple as extra money and hiring extra individuals.”
Union lobbyists initially stated they might take no stance on an investigation into wage theft, Glazer stated.
However the California Labor Federation is now pushing its personal agenda.
“We don’t should be diverted in the course of all this. We’ve already carried out the work to seek out out what’s improper,” stated Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a former member of the state Meeting who’s now chief officer of the federation. “We’re making an attempt to get motion right this moment.”
Gonzalez Fletcher stated labor leaders in non-public have arrived at their very own conclusions of what must be carried out.
“We actually have convened all the consultants, the attorneys, the employee facilities, the unions, and give you a complete host of enforcement instruments that we have to enact,” she stated.
The federation blitzed a two-page abstract of its plans Friday to all lawmakers. Its bullet-list of options features a streamlined hiring course of for wage theft investigators, relaxed hiring requirements and elevated pay. It additionally endorses laws that may permit state penalties towards corporations that misclassify their employees as impartial contractors to keep away from paying time beyond regulation and different advantages.
Bringing in investigators whose findings can be public would “impede” these adjustments, Gonzalez Fletcher asserted, diverting employees and sources.
The federation represents some 1,200 native unions with employees in retail, manufacturing, development, hospitality, healthcare and public authorities and healthcare, amongst different industries. Its opposition letter to the wage theft audit was signed by 11 different unions and union organizations, together with Teamsters, United Meals and Industrial Employees, and Worksafe.
The Division of Industrial Relations has not taken a stance on Glazer’s audit request. The company additionally didn’t reply to a request to interview Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower.
She was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019. For almost 20 years earlier than, Garcia-Brower constructed wage theft instances towards janitorial corporations as director of the Los Angeles-based Upkeep Cooperation Belief Fund, which is financed by unionized janitorial providers.
The audit is to be voted on Wednesday by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which is chaired by Assemblyman David Alvarez (D-San Diego), who cosigned Glazer’s request. Till union opposition surfaced, approval seemed to be assured.
Different gadgets on the agenda embrace a request by state Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) to research failures in California’s hashish licensing. The request got here in response to an investigative sequence by The Instances documenting widespread native corruption and bribery, a market collapse forcing small-scale weed growers out of enterprise, unbridled unlawful cultivation overtaking rural communities, and the exploitation and deaths of hashish farmworkers.
Publicly accessible data on wage theft claims is scanty, and reporting by the labor company to lawmakers offers no details about backlogs. The present wait time for hearings was revealed to Glazer’s employees throughout a personal assembly, and no written report was created.
The Division of Industrial Relations didn’t reply questions from The Instances about wait occasions for hearings or whether or not brief staffing has induced lengthy delays.
A Instances expose of widespread exploitation of hashish employees documented instances through which employees waited greater than a 12 months for an preliminary settlement convention, months extra for a listening to, and even months extra for a choice — all of the whereas uncovered to hostile employers.
State case recordsdata obtained by The Instances confirmed there was no report of an company reply to an advocate’s requests to hurry up hearings for 2 brothers allegedly threatened with loss of life if they didn’t withdraw their instances towards a state-licensed Yolo County hashish farm. In different instances there was no additional investigation when employees alleged employers waved weapons at them or engaged in patterns of exploiting undocumented employees.
The Joint Legislative Audit Committee units the agenda for the California State Auditor’s workplace, whose investigations detailing state failings incessantly develop into political fodder.
The Labor Federation stated it was collaborating with plenty of lawmakers to repair wage theft points within the Division of Industrial Relations, together with state Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), who chairs the Senate Labor Committee and likewise sits on the audit committee making Wednesday’s vote.
Workers members for Cortese disputed that and on Monday stated the senator “is just not engaged on a plan associated to DIR and wage theft claims.”
Cortese and Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), in response to Instances reporting of abusive practices in hashish, are sponsoring their very own city corridor assembly on hashish trade workforce points on the finish of the month.
