 We continue to move forward around our advocacy for "An Act to Protect Injured Workers" which has been a longtime legislative priority for us and is perhaps the single most important advocacy priority for our base this 2024 season. The bill provides limited but critical improvements to the Commonwealth’s workers’ compensation law to protect workers against retaliation and ensure access to timely medical care and benefits. S. 1165 was reported favorably out of committee, and Senator Eldridge is filing the same language as a Senate Budget Amendment ('outside section').
Get involved in this next stage of advocacy by contacting YOUR Massachusetts Center and asking for their support on Budget Amendment #133. Making worker's compensation accessible for all and setting up enforceability for anti-retaliation protections benefits everyone! An Act to Protect Injured Workers would: -Clarify the types of employer misconduct & retaliation prohibited under workers’ comp law -Clarify the standard of proof and remedies available for harm caused by employer retaliation -Allow the Attorney General’s Office to investigate and enforce retaliation complaints -Expand notice to employees of workers’ comp rights and prohibitions against retaliation -Require the calculation of workers’ comp benefits based on the minimum wages required by law, even where employers have paid workers illegally at sub-minimum levels -Allow for investigation of problematic insurer claims-handling practices Action Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ERyfsrodEZSgnSv5QpUklip1UwBYyESb4MJMdbZSDJA/edit?usp=sharing  Casa has continued working ardently with partner organizations and advocates in our Injured Worker Coalition on specific legislative advocacy to improve the lives of injured workers in Massachusetts. This year, An Act to Protect Injured Workers (H. 1927) was reported favorably out of committee once again and passed on to House Ways and Means! Passing this act is so critical because it will add protections into the letter of the law for workers claiming their right to Workers Compensation who might otherwise face intimidation or retaliation from employers. The bill is a carefully crafted, targeted piece of legislation meant to make the process for workers injured on the job to seek medical care and comp benefits in a more accessible way. Co-sponsor Representative Tram Nguyen has now filed the Injured worker bill as Amendment #802 to the House Budget. Next Wednesday, it will be decision time for whether or not the budget amendment gets approved. We continue working with the coalition in communicating with legislators towards the end of favorably influencing the outcome of the budget amendment, which could really make the difference of the bill being passed. Something that anyone can do as a Massachusetts constituent is communicate directly with their State Representative's office expressing support for this bill and encouraging them to sign on to Budget Amendment #802. Every time a legislator hears from a constituent that this issue matters to them can make a difference. The economies in Metrowest and beyond depend on workers in construction and landscaping industries who live and practice trades in our communities and deserve fair access to the support systems offered by law when they suffer on-the job injuries. We also encourage friends and supporters to read the recent Boston Globe Article featuring members of the coalition, including our own Diego Low together with an Injured worker leader: Injured Workers Have Little Recourse Against Rogue Employers. Interested in contacting your legislator? See our how-to guide below:  Above: An updated one-page summary sheet explaining what the Injured Worker Bill entails. This has been one tool used in the follow-up with key legislative offices.  The week before Christmas, Casa took up the cause of a group of hotel housekeepers who had not been paid for their work. As we spoke to one worker after another, it became evident that at least 11 workers were owed wages -- many of them owed a couple thousand dollars and many having been paid with bounced checks. These workers clean hotel rooms at some of the best known hotel chains in the country. They are employed, however, through a labor broker who owes wages to dozens of other housekeepers in various Eastern Massachusetts hotels. This is all too common in a world of increasingly fissured workplaces.
On Tuesday, December 20, a group of allies and Consejo members organized an action at one Wakefield-area hotel where three women were owed wages. Along with a worker representative, we delivered a letter to hotel management asking that they intervene and pursue payment for the workers who clean their rooms. The letter specifically requested that the hotel not fire this bad-actor employer, out of fear that the workers would then never see their pay. Instead, we asked that hotel management oblige the subcontractor to pay the workers the wages he owed them. The peaceful action was productive, as we were able to deliver the letter directly to the head manager and speak with him about the situation. He was thankfully sympathetic and took action, connecting promptly with the labor broker and insisting on payment. By Friday, the three workers had received their back wages. Casa returned to the hotel with a second representative of the workers and they were able to collect all the wages owed and distribute them that afternoon and evening. Casa will be looking at strategies for pursuing strategies for collecting wages for the other dozens of workers owed wages by the broker at other hotels, where we lack the leverage of an ongoing contract. This type of impactful action will be key to effective strategy going forward. Please let us know if you'd be interested joining us for actions like this in the future as we bird-dog these unscrupulous and thieving employers. Ally support and solidarity is crucial! As we approach the end of 2022, please consider financially supporting our work. Donations can be directed to our general work or specifically earmarked for a number of different projects and funds: the Injured Workers Fund, Canasta Solidaridad, COVID clinics, and aid against evictions. Your support allows us to continue our efforts alongside immigrant workers and redistribute funds directly to those in immediate need. In solidarity, Metrowest Worker Center - Casa del Trabajador - Casa do Trabalhador After a 2 month battle, a small siding crew has been paid the wages they were owed on the work they did at Camellia Gardens, part of the new Maynard Crossing (129 Parker St., Maynard). This is a significant victory for worker rights and shows that general contractors can be held responsible for ensuring that crews down the subcontracting chain are treated fairly.
The crew of 4 from Waltham were not paid by the Atlantis Builders Inc., who was subcontracted by Peter DeSalvo Contracting LLC. They reached out to Metrowest Legal Services and the Metrowest Worker Center, who negotiated with all the companies involved. In conjunction with the Metrowest Immigrant Solidarity Network, the group presented a letter to Hawthorn Construction Group, LLC on September 20, 2019, asking them to remedy this injustice by leveraging their power as the general contractor. While neither DeSalvo or Hawthorn knew of this wage theft, both stepped up to right this wrong and today, the work crew received the remaining wages they were owed. We hope this victory encourages all workers to fight for their rights. And we hope all contractors will be encouraged by the ethical business practices of DeSalvo and Hawthorn. For more information: Diego Low, Metrowest Worker Center, (508) 532-0575
Metrowest Worker Center is pleased to report that yesterday the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that employer Tara Construction and its CEO Pedro Pirez egregiously and illegally retaliated against a worker who suffered and reported a serious workplace injury -- causing the worker to be arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We hope that workers throughout the region take heart from USDOL’s action and feel empowered to pursue their legal and human rights. We also hope that employers take this case as a serious indication of the consequences of using immigration related threats and actions to illegally intimidate workers and to prevent them from exercising their basic workplace rights. We will not stand for employers who target vulnerable workers to deny them their rights, undermining working conditions for the entire labor force and endangering our communities. The worker in USDOL’s case, Jose Martin Paz Flores, is a hard-working, devoted husband and father who came to the United States over 18 years ago, fleeing violence and crime in his native Honduras. Since then, Mr. Paz Flores has established a life for himself and his family in the Boston area, raising his five children together with his wife and supporting them as a construction worker. On March 29, 2017, Mr. Paz Flores fell from a ladder while working as a drywall taper for Tara Construction. He fractured his femur in the fall, requiring immediate hospitalization and surgery. Mr. Paz Flores soon learned, however, that Tara Construction had allowed its workers’ compensation insurance policy to lapse and, as a result, that he would not begin receiving wage loss compensation and medical coverage as required by law. After being notified that the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) had initiated an inquiry into the accident, and after also receiving notification that Mr. Paz Flores’ workers’ compensation insurance claim had been denied because of the policy lapse, Mr. Pirez and Tara Construction seemingly recognized the seriousness of their failure to meet their legal obligations. In an apparent attempt to prevent Mr. Paz Flores from pursuing his rights, Mr. Pirez and Tara Construction retaliated against him in a dramatic and life-changing way: Mr. Pirez contacted and collaborated with the Boston Police Department to have Mr. Paz Flores arrested and detained by ICE. On May 10, 2017, Mr. Pirez lured Mr. Paz Flores to the Tara Construction office with a promise of financial support. After handing Mr. Paz Flores $500 in cash, Mr. Pirez and others from Tara Construction watched as he left the office on crutches, returned to the car where a friend and his toddler son waited for him, and was detained and arrested by ICE. Mr. Paz Flores subsequently spent 12 days in ICE detention, causing him great suffering and threatening his precarious medical recovery. He experienced excruciating physical pain in his leg that was worsened by trying to use crutches while his hands and feet were shackled, as well as the denial of pain medication for several days. His family was plunged into a financial and emotional crisis, suffering devastating fear and anxiety that he could be deported, leaving them without a husband and father. His two-year-old son could not sleep after having seen his father arrested. The nonprofit human rights organization Metrowest Worker Center, together with workers’ compensation attorney Stacie Sobosik and immigration attorney Christina Corbaci, rallied public pressure and initiated government investigations in order to assist in obtaining Mr. Paz Flores’ release from detention. Yesterday’s filing by USDOL is the outcome of its OSHA investigation into the unlawful retaliation against Mr. Paz Flores for the protected activities of reporting a workplace injury and causing OSHA to initiate an inquiry. Attorney Audrey Richardson of Greater Boston Legal Services represents Mr. Paz Flores as a witness in the USDOL matter. The brazenness of Tara Construction and Pedro Pirez’s retaliatory actions in this case are stunning. However, the basic pattern of employers who threaten retaliation, or who more subtly retaliate against workers to deter them from asserting their rights by reporting workplace injuries and other violations of their rights (including sexual harassment and wage theft), is a daily reality. While we are extremely concerned about the role of the Boston Police Department in this case and in collaborating with ICE more generally, the Metrowest Worker Center and allies reiterate that USDOL’s filing is a victory for workers’ rights and immigrant rights in the Commonwealth. This case is an important first step toward protecting workers, especially immigrant workers, from unlawful retaliation for exercising their basic workplace rights. For news coverage of this issue: https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/02/28/retaliation-lawsuit-undocumented-worker-bpd-ice |
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