by dcjwjeditor | May 20, 2013 | Actions & Events
Our Eleventh Annual “I’ll Be There” Awards,is scheduled for Thursday June 27, 2013. As per our local tradition, we will celebrate at the AFL-CIO Samuel Gompers Room located at 815 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20006. The Awards will take place from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. This year DC JwJ is leading the fight with ATU to keep our WMATA transit system public, affordable, and safe. We are also keeping up the battle with UFCW and the community to hold Big Box stores accountable with the passage of the Large Retailer Accountability Act. In addition we are working in solidarity with the Paid Sick Days for All Coalition, and the Wage Theft Coalition to pass critical legislation that will protect our city’s most vulnerable and fastest growing sector of low wage workers. This year we are honored to celebrate the following local heroes who have all contributed their time, talents, and passion to our mission to protect workers’ rights: Ann Hoffman, National Writers’ Guild, The Employment Justice Center, Rabbi Bob Saks, Jews United for Justice, and The George Washington Progressive Student Union. **And a special tribute to DC Jobs with Justice Board Chair Roger Newell for his endless dedication and his legacy in student organizing. Please consider placing an ad in our ad book to support the event. For more information contact Nikki at Nikki@dcjwj.org or Lilly at...
by dcjwjeditor | Dec 7, 2012 | Guest Blog, Immigrant Rights, Trabajadores Unidos de DC / United Workers of DC, Wage Theft
Guest Blog Post from Barbra A. Kavanaugh December 4, 2012 Everyone knows what theft is, but I am constantly surprised by how few people know what “wage theft” is. Simply put, wage theft is when employers refuse to pay employees the wages they have earned, either by denying them the minimum wage, overtime or frequently, simply not paying them at all. Every week, more than two-thirds of low-wage workers experience at least one incident of wage theft. At a time when many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, for many of the clients we see, even just one incident of wage theft can result in unpaid rent, car repossession or homelessness. One of the most common ways that employers steal wages is by misclassifying their employees as independent contractors to avoid paying the legally required minimum wage and overtime pay. Workers who are wrongly labeled as independent contractors are cheated of many of the legal protections afforded to employees – including minimum wage and overtime. No matter what an employer calls a worker, the law determines whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor. Although there is no hard and fast rule, the more control an employer has over the circumstances of a worker’s employment, the more likely it is that the worker should be considered an employee, and not an independent contractor. For example, if an employer controls the hours that someone works, where they work and provides their equipment, that person is not likely to be an independent contractor. Too often, employers take advantage of workers’ ignorance on this issue, and deny rightful wages, overtime, breaks,...
