These bills will provide for serious penalties including fines and imprisonment for taking from working Rhode Islanders. Perhaps the most significant penalty is the loss of a business license, the bills also empower the director of the Department of Labor and Training to determine compliance. Encouraging responsible reporting and discouraging false claims, the process of private suit has meaningful safeguards in place.

“Too often we see workers awarded a judgment by DLT only to have the employer refuse to pay what is owed,” said Robert McCreanor executive director of the worker advocacy law firm The Rhode Island Center for Justice. With the power to revoke business licenses from offending employers who refuse to comply with its rulings, DLT will be able to compel prompt payment and get more money, more efficiently, into the hands of the worker who earned it. While more work needs to be done to address the growing problem of wage theft, this bill provides an important tool for Rhode Island workers.”

Said Lidia Jimenez a member of Fuerza Laboral, “As a worker that has had their wages stolen, I feel proud that my testimony and that of Flor Salazar helped elected officials understand the atrocities that are committed daily by bad employers who feel that justice will not reach them and take our daily bread. This will help put an end to some of the abuse.” It is estimated by Economic Progress Institute that over $50,000,000,000 per year are stolen from workers’ wages. The process of enforcement historically has been spotty and difficult to apply.

Jeremy Rix who is running for 2nd ward of the Warwick City Council said, “I’m thrilled that the wage theft reforms introduced by Rep. Shekarchi become law. This law will deter many unethical employers from stealing wages, and provide a meaningful path for vulnerable employees to recover their stolen earnings.”

The organizations that have participated in the effort to pass these two vital bills are: Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, The RIAFL-CIO, Fuerza Laboral, and the Rhode Island Center for Justice. Each of these organizations is committed to improving the conditions of Rhode Island’s working people.

Wage theft in Rhode Island may be a much bigger problem than robbery.  And, as Steve Ahlquist previously reported, even high profile violators may be getting away with a slap on the wrist with workers left with little recourse.

Thanks to a bill introduced by Representative Shekarchi and Senator Nesselbush, now passed by the House and Senate, that will change upon the Governor’s signature.

In written testimony supporting the bill, the Rhode Island chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America (RIPDA) summarized how the bill makes a difference:

The bill improves the current law in several ways.  First, in redefining “employee,” the protected class is broadened to generally include “independent contractors” (minus the groups that have been specifically excluded).  Second, it provides for the State to suspend a non-compliant business’ license.  Third, it allows employees to recover double damages and attorneys’ fees from a wage-stealing employer.

Not only does this bill deter unscrupulous employers from stealing from employees with suspension of a business’ license, but, for those who are deprived of their rightful wages, the bill gives a real solution.  Instead of merely filing with the Department of Labor and Training, employees will be able to sue directly and recover twice as much as was stolen from them.  Attorneys are encouraged to take meritorious cases — if successful, the employee’s lawyer is entitled to be paid by the employer.

The most financially vulnerable among us are targets of wage theft.  The biggest challenge remains:  Employees need to be aware of their rights, and have the courage to seek legal help when standing up to unethical and manipulative bosses.

There are employees at Eastland who have worked there for twenty years, and they’re still making minimum wage. Workers claim to have never been paid time and a half to work on Sundays. There are allegations of sexual harassment, wage theft, and 60 to 80 hour work weeks. No one working there has ever had a vacation or paid sick days.

With the power of a union, these workers will now be able to bargain for better pay, better working a conditions, and the right to be treated as people, not commodities.

There are employees at Eastland who have worked there for twenty years, and they’re still making minimum wage. Workers claim to have never been paid time and a half to work on Sundays. There are allegations of sexual harassment, wage theft, and 60 to 80 hour work weeks. No one working there has ever had a vacation or paid sick days.

It’s the kind of situation we don’t imagine happening in Rhode Island. It’s the kind of company we picture operating in a right-to work state down south, where workers are not treated fairly or humanely.

But it’s happening right here in Rhode Island.

An overwhelming majority of workers have already signed authorization cards expressing their desire to form their union and now have an upcoming union election with UFCW Local 328. In response, the owners of Eastland began mandating that employees attend anti-union workshops ahead of a unionization vote this coming Thursday. The owners seem to like the status quo, and don’t want a union to mess with their ability to treat their workers as disposable commodities.

As a consequence, workers today picketed outside Eastland, supported by UFCW 328 and representatives from Prov CLC, IBEW 2323, IBEW 99, Prov Newspaper Guild, Teamsters 251, IATSE 481, RI ALC-CIO, RI Painters Union DC 11, and the American Friends Service Committee.

The owner of Eastland drove by in his white Cadillac Escalade as the picketers organized across the street. He and his office workers and family used their cellphones to take video and pictures of the brave employees who dared to call on their boss for fair treatment. When the protesters crossed the street and walked to the door of the offices to deliver a letter outlining their grievances, the owner locked the door and called the police.

The worker committee of Eastland Foods read the undelivered letter on behalf of the workers stating, “After many years of working very hard for this company, we have been neglected and we have been treated with very little respect. We know that for the work that we do, we deserve better. We feel that it is unfair that we only earn minimum wage and we have no vacations, paid sick days, or paid holidays.” They continued, “In less than a week, we will cast our votes in favor of forming our union and we look forward to finally addressing the major problems that we have struggled with here for so many years.” They ended the letter by respectfully demanding that management “put an end to the intimidation and scare tactics” and to accept their decision to form their union.

The owner kept the door locked even when State Representative David Bennett knocked and asked to speak with him.

The police arrived and after consulting with the owner, asked the protesters to move to the sidewalk. In all the protest lasted about half an hour.

When I called Eastland to ask about the workers and the protest they hung up on me. According to this website, Eastland was established in 1986 as a “fruit and vegetable broker.” It has estimated revenues of between $100 and $500 million dollars and employs about 75 people.

Fast food employees, restaurant workers and labor allies rallied outside the Wendy’s restaurant at 771 Warwick Ave in Warwick around noon as part of a national effort to kick off a year-long $15 minimum wage campaign ahead of next year’s presidential elections. Nearly 100 people gathered in the parking lot of Wendy’s, where the management had locked the doors ahead of the protests and only served meals through the drive-thru window.

Led by outgoing Rhode-Island Jobs with Justice executive director Jesse Strecker, workers chanted and marched around the building, finally settling in front for a series of speeches from various workers and advocates “all the way down the food chain.”

Long time Wendy’s worker and minimum wage advocate Jo-Ann Gesterling spoke not only about fair wages, but about wages stolen when management forces workers to work through their breaks, lack of accountability in the management structure, and other issues fast food workers deal with on a daily basis.

Demonstrators were not only demanding $15 an hour, fair treatment and a union, they were also demanding that Wendy’s join the the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program (FFP). Attentive readers will remember that the Brown Student Labor Alliance lead a protest in October around the FFP, described as a “ground-breaking model for worker-led social responsibility based on a unique collaboration among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers and 14 participating buyers.” It is “the first comprehensive, verifiable and sustainable approach to ensuring better wages and working conditions in America’s agricultural fields.”

Emelio Garcia, a former employee of Teriyaki House Restaurant in downtown Providence spoke about not having been paid for work he did at the restaurant. Wage theft is a story sadly common in Rhode Island, as more and more employees stand up and demand the wages that have been stolen from them by employers. Garcia says that he was docked for two hours of pay a day for breaks he was never actually allowed to take.

Flor Salazar, who worked at Café Atlantic and was owed thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, was allegedly assaulted by owner Juan Noboa with a baseball bat when she and a group of workers confronted Noboa at his home Halloween morning. “We are tired of having our work stolen, we are tired of being disrespected in our workplace,” said Salazar, “It’s enough.”

The final speaker was a not a restaurant worker but Magdalene Smith, a CNA working at a Pawtucket nursing home. “This is not a fight for just restaurants, but for everybody,” said Smith. “Everybody deserves $15. We work hard.”

In addition to Jobs With Justice and the Brown Student/Labor Alliance the event was sponsored by 1199 SEIU Rhode Island, Fuerza Laboral/Power of Workers and Restaurant Opportunities Center of Rhode Island.

Workers and activists from local workers’ rights organizations paid a surprise visit to housing development construction sites at The Parc at Medfield and Modera Natick Central in Melrose, Massachusetts Friday morning, demanding $42,000 in unpaid wages. This crew of workers continues to work at these two sites and were employed by Allstate Interiors, a subcontractor hired by Dellbrook Construction and Mill Creek Residential.

They called on Dellbrook and Mill Creek to pay workers their unpaid wages.

This is the third time Fuerza Laboral, in concert with two Massachusetts based workers rights groups, Metrowest Worker Center and the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative, have confronted worksites about the wage theft issue. (RI Future covered those visits in April and August.)

“This group of workers made a verbal agreement with Allstate to be paid $25/hr for drywall workers and $15/hr for laborers. Every week, they would submit invoices for this hourly rate,” said Phoebe Gardner, an organizer at Fuerza. “However, Allstate would send back pay checks and purchase orders that didn’t match up with the invoices but instead were by piecemeal and were consistently less than their agreed upon rate. In total, Allstate underpaid the workers $42,333.”

The workers first descended on The Parc at Medfield, a Dellbrook Construction. A delegation of about 20 workers and activists spoke to reps from Dellbrook, “to hold them responsible for the payments that Allstate refuses to make good on.”

According to Gardner, “Dellbrook was somewhat ‘diplomatic’ and promised to consider withholding further payment from Allstate until Allstate paid its workers if we can present sufficient proof that Allstate owes the money.” Allstate denies owing money and claims that they’ve paid workers in full. There is no written contract with the workers.

Dellbrook claimed that this was the first they were hearing about this issue, says Gardner, which she maintains is not true because workers had approached the company about this problem back in August, at which point Allstate foreman Willie Cerna paid a portion of what was due. Dellbrook also refused to acknowledge any other problems at their sites and declined to listen to advice on how to better treat workers in the future.

“When leaving the site,” says Gardner, “we noticed a truck belonging to Olympic Painting and Roofing, infamous for a long history of documented wage theft.”

The second stop was at Modera Natick Central a development of Mill Creek Residential. Here the reception was “hostile,” according to Gardner.

“When we entered their trailer, they told us that they would talk with us if we just stepped outside. As soon as we did so, they ran behind us and shut and locked the trailer door. When I tried to put my foot out to block them from closing the door, one Mill Creek rep pushed me out of the way. The police came almost immediately and kicked us off the property but agreed to deliver the letter we had for Mill Creek.

“Allstate crews were working on the work site while we were there. Willie Cerna was also on the site, who acted as if he didn’t know about the issue and ‘promised’ to review the workers’ invoices again. This is ridiculous because workers and our organizations have been trying to recover this money from Allstate for almost a year now.”

Gardner further referred me to this MetroWest Daily News article.

“Violations like this at local job sites are an ugly symptom of a trend that has swept our state and country,” says Fuerza Laboral in a press release. “The increasing use and misuse of subcontracting and outsourcing is a major contributor to the low wages and unsafe working conditions in our economy today. While sometimes these practices reflect more efficient ways of doing business, too often they are the result of explicit employer strategies to evade labor laws and erode worker protections.

“Legal processes for holding small subcontractors accountable to complying with labor law are often long and ultimately unsuccessful in recovering wages or ensuring safe working conditions. Small subcontractors can easily change names or leave the state. Many builders use contractors and subcontractors that are based out of state to begin with, which means workers would have to travel out of state and deal with out of state agencies to recover their wages.

“Even if the court or the state decides that the subcontractor owes workers money, it can be hard to recover if the subcontractor moves or has no assets. When workers have tried to bring these labor rights violations to the general contractor, they are told that the general contractor is not responsible because the workers are not direct employees.

“Workers are prepared to lien these two apartment complexes if Dellbrook and Mill Creek do not pay immediately. ‘We want justice,’ says Edwin Rosales, who worked under Allstate at the Medfield and Natick sites. ‘Our messafe to Dellbrook and Mill Creek is that it’s your property, you have to be responsible. We need to make owners of properties liable for workers’ justice. Allstate is not taking responsible and someone has to. Pay or lien!’

“Labor law needs to be updated to reflect the increased use of subcontracting to ensure that workers are protected. Community Labor United and its partners have filed state legislation in Massachusetts, entitled An Act to Prevent Wage Theft and Promote Employer Accountability, which seeks to update the law and build more worker protections into subcontracted work. While this legislation is pending, it is up to workers and advocates to put pressure on contractors to ensure they are doing business in a responsible manner and abiding by labor law.”

Workers from Rhode Island and Massachusetts visited the Alta Stone Apartments in Melrose, developed and owned by Wood Partners, to demand payment for $34,000 worth of work done on the apartments at 72 Stone Place and 1000 Stone Place between July and October 2014. According to Fuerza Laboral, these workers were employed by a subcontractor hired by Wood Partners. As part of their demonstration workers delivered a “citation” calling on Wood Partners to pay workers their stolen wages.

According to Fuerza Laboral organizer Phoebe Gardener, “When workers formally brought complaints to the subcontractor for their unpaid wages in April 2015, Wood Partners denied all claims. Ten workers have submitted wage theft complaints with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. Since the subcontractor has refused to pay and Wood was the ultimate beneficiary of the work performed, workers are holding Wood directly accountable for their unpaid wages.”

“They owed us money every week and didn’t pay us at all the last two weeks of work,” said Gianni Batres in a statement. Batres worked as a drywaller at the Alta Stone Place apartments. “This isn’t fair for workers. Wood Partners needs to be ultimately responsible for making sure that the workers who are hired by their contractors and subcontractors get paid.”

The workers previously demonstrated at the Hanover Development worksite at University Station in Westwood back in April.

Fuerza Laboral, along with sister organization Metrowest Worker Center, the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative, Massachusetts Community Labor United, the Greater Boston Labor Council and other community and labor partners, “are working in more intentional ways to build campaigns around holding builders responsible for the working conditions of subcontracted workers,” says Gardener.

Gardener added that small subcontractors can easily change names or leave the state. Many builders use contractors and subcontractors that are based out of state to begin with, which means workers would have to travel out of state and deal with out of state agencies to recover their wages. Even if the court or the state decides that the subcontractor owes workers money, it can be hard to recover if the subcontractor moves or has no assets. When workers have tried to bring these labor rights violations to the general contractor, they are told that the general contractor is not responsible because the workers are not direct employees.

[This report is compiled from a press release and email correspondence with Phoebe Gardener.]

A meeting of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association (RIHA) at the restaurant Not Your Average Joe’s in Warwick means that RIHA President Bob Bacon, owner of the Gregg’s Restaurant chain, can no longer claim that, “Thirty-five years plus in the industry, I’ve never encountered [tip and wage theft].”

Not Your Average Joe’s in Massachusetts was found to have failed to pay employees hundreds of thousands of dollars across 15 restaurants in 2012 by the United States Department of  Labor. Not Your Average Joe’s owed workers over half a million dollars.

Bacon, speaking before the RI House Committee on Labor, added, “I’m not naive enough to say that it doesn’t exist. I can tell you that it doesn’t exist on the level that’s being portrayed here tonight. I can say that without any reservation.”

This is belied by a statement from George A. Rioux, the Labor Department’s district director in Boston, whose investigation found such theft and fraud at 34 Boston area restaurants. “We were surprised by the results,” said Rioux, “This is substantial. We’re not getting the change in behavior we want. Companies are paying back wages and agreeing to compliance, and it’s not enough to finally wake up and see that we’re serious.”

Bacon was speaking against House Bill 5363 that, if passed, would make it easier for workers to take action to recover money lost through wage theft, a multibillion dollar crime in the United States. Bacon suggested that the restaurant industry was fully capable of policing themselves.

…if one of these people that says they have all these problems, if they want to come to us, I’ve offered for three years in a row to do the following: First, we’ll keep the employees name confidential. Second, we’ll meet with the employer and we’ll bring the complaint to their attention, third, we’ll work to educate that employer on the U.S. Department of Labor’s rules and regulations on the matter, and fourth, probably most important, in the event that an employer chooses to stay out of compliance with an issue, we would assist the employee in going through the appropriate channels to get the situation rectified.”

Organized by Fuerza Laboral and RI Jobs with Justice, the group exited the bus and walked up the driveway towards Cho’s mansion, loudly calling on him to pay his workers what he owes, even if it means selling off his fabulous home and moving into lesser digs. Cho did not show his face at the windows or respond to the crowd, but the Woodbridge Police Department did respond minutes after the action started.

The police, once they determined that this was a peaceful labor protest, did not interfere, much to the consternation of some of Cho’s neighbors. Since Cho decided against meeting with his former workers, the protesters took a walk through Cho’s neighborhood, chanting and distributing flyers.

This was the morning that Cho’s neighbors, if they didn’t already know, learned what kind of person he is.

Chung Cho was found guilty in Connecticut of 43 violations of employment law, and was ordered to pay $140,000 in back pay to workers. In Rhode Island, Cho is accused of not paying over $150,000 in back pay. Cho denies that he owes any money. The trial is scheduled to start on Tuesday.

Pedro Guarcas, in a statement, said, “I worked in the kitchen of Gourmet Heaven in Providence for over a year. For months I worked grueling 72 hour weeks for only $400 a week. Twice I fell down the kitchen stairs carrying heavy boxes of fruit because my supervisor was pressuring me to work faster. In April of 2014, the kitchen supervisor met me out back when I was taking out the trash and punched me several times in the stomach. Eventually I had to stop working because I couldn’t handle the pain in my foot and my hip where I had fallen and where my supervisor had punched me.”

This is at least the second time workers have taken early morning action against business owners who steal wages. In January workers paid an early morning visit to the home of Juan Noboa, accused of owing his workers at least $17,000 in unpaid wages from his failed Café Atlantic restaurant venture. His neighbors were also displeased.

Owners of businesses stealing wages from workers should take note: You could be next.

In the letter he says, “At this point, this is wage theft, plain and simple.”

April 27, 2015

Accounts Payable
CUMULUS MEDIA INC., CUMULUS BROADCASTING INC.
3280 Peachtree Road, NW Suite 2300
Atlanta, Georgia 30305

CC: Barbara Haynes, General Manager
Cumulus Media Providence
1502 Wampanoag Trail
East Providence, RI 02915

Hello,

My name is Philip Eil and I am a freelance journalist based in Providence, Rhode Island. I’m writing to collect payment for four articles, totaling over 11,500 words, I wrote for 630wpro.com (the website for the Cumulus-owned News Talk 630 & 99.7 FM WPRO, based in East Providence, Rhode Island) in November and December of 2014. The sum of the fees for these articles is $1,350, and my late fees (which I explain at the end of this letter) add up to an additional $684.50. In total, Cumulus Media and/or WPRO owe me $2,034.50, and I am demanding this payment immediately to avoid further legal action.

It’s not customary for me to demand payment from a publicly traded corporation, so some explanation is in order. In October of 2014, the Providence Phoenix (the weekly newspaper where I had worked as news editor) closed. Shortly thereafter, I was approached by WPRO’s Digital Media Director, who was interested in expanding the web content on 630wpro.com. We talked about what he was looking for and the kinds of articles I was interested in writing, and we agreed upon terms that were laid out in a contract that I ultimately signed and submitted on November 17, 2014. On October 31, 2014, 630wpro.com published an article introducing me as a freelance contributor which included a quote from the station’s Program Director: “We are excited to have new, original content from someone as respected as Phil available to us…The original content and perspective he provides will be invaluable to our on-air hosts and online delivery.” That post has since been removed from the website, but I have attached a printed version.

My first article for 630wpro.com, “Campaign 2014: A Look Back,” was published on November 3, 2014, and three more articles followed before year’s end: a 5,000-word interview with the outgoing governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee; an in-depth report on the state’s use and distribution of the anti-overdose medication, Narcan; and a 3,000-word year-in-review article published in late December. When I still had received no payment after submitting the fourth article, I decided to stop working on new pieces.

So began a still-fruitless quest to be compensated for the contracted work I had done for WPRO – all work that has been published on 630wpro.com alongside ads that presumably generate revenue for the station. Though I had already inquired about the status of my payment in November and December, in January I wrote numerous additional emails and made additional phone calls to various station employees. Despite these repeated inquiries, I received no paycheck.

On January 22, 2015 – more than two months after I had sent my first invoice – I received this email from WPRO’s Business Manager:

Hi Phillip – during the year-end process, payable runs are fewer and farther between as opposed to the normal weekly runs.  We don’t cut the checks here, they are processed at the corporate level.  I only get reports once per week and will know on Monday if they cut your check this Thursday.  If they haven’t, I will get you a cashier’s check and expense it on my monthly expense report.  I apologize but it is beyond my control.  We haven’t had the ability to cut checks locally since Cumulus took over three years ago.

Still, no check arrived. I made more phone calls and wrote more emails. On February 3 – nearly three months after I first sent an invoice to WPRO – I received this email from the same business manager, following up on a phone call in which she said the check was being overnight-mailed to me:

Hi Phil – I just wanted to let you know that due to the storm yesterday the FEDEX package was not picked up.  It is going out today so you should have it tomorrow.

Still, no check arrived. I made more phone calls and wrote more emails. On February 11, I received this note from the Digital Media Director who had initially approached me about working for WPRO:

I was notified that [the Business Manager] is no longer with the company.

There is a corporate business manager in the building and I have reported the missing check to our GM.

Stand by…

Still, no check arrived. I made more calls and wrote more emails. On April 7 – more than four months after I sent my first invoice to WPRO – I received this note from the station’s Program Director.

Hi Phil,

I got your message.  I am so sorry this has happened.  I know [Digital Media Director] mentioned quite a while ago that you were waiting for money. I thought you had been paid.  I will find out what is happening with this and get back to you as soon as I can.

Again, no check arrived. And, as of today, 161 days (5 months, 10 days) after I filed my first invoice, and numerous months after filing invoices for subsequent articles, I still have not been paid for the work I did for 630wpro.com.

While I understand that unforeseen circumstances and personnel issues may have contributed to the delay, I – an independent contractor – should not have to suffer for your company’s internal dysfunction. At this point, this is wage theft, plain and simple. I am not an amateur journalist and my work is not a hobby for me. When I am misled and taken advantage of for nearly six months, I will not remain silent. Last week, after months of private efforts to resolve this situation proved ineffective, I wrote a Facebook post about it, which, in turn, was written about in a local Patch.com article, which, in turn, was picked up by the national media blogger Jim Romenesko, who wrote, “Shame on you, Cumulus Media’s WPRO!” I will continue to tell my story until I am paid.

As you can see, I am CC’ing Barbara Haynes, General Manager of Cumulus Providence, and I will also be simultaneously publishing this letter on the blog rifuture.org. As for the late fees I mentioned, when a client does not pay me within 90 days of receiving my invoice, I assess a fee of one percent of the agreed-upon payment for every additional day that payment is received. In this case, I sent WPRO a $250 invoice for my first article on November 17, 2014. It has been 71 days since the 90-window expired, thus a $177.50 fee has accrued. Add to this the fees from the other three unpaid articles ($260, $160, and $87, respectively) and the total comes to $684.50. Added together, these fees will continue to rise at a total of $13.50 for every day I am not paid.

You will find an invoice for those late fees – as well as my initial WPRO invoices and a printed copy of the 630wpro.com article trumpeting my arrival as a contributor – attached to this letter.

I sincerely hope I receive a check for $2,034.50 as soon as possible. A public apology would be nice, too.

Sincerely,

Philip Eil

Freelance Journalist, Editor, and Teacher
[My email address.]
[My phone number.]