It’s really no secret that construction work is tough, infact it's one of the riskiest jobs to do. It's long hours, heavy lifting, dangerous conditions and especially in cities that love high rise buildings, the work is even more dangerous and yet in Los Angeles, some developers thought it was okay to cheat their workers out of the money they earned.
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office just hit several companies with a sum of $2.3 million in fines and back pay after an investigation was done and they found 124 workers were getting ripped off at four construction sites.
I'll have to be straight with this statement, this is exactly why the "work harder and you’ll get ahead" lie is so dangerous when you actually believe it. Hard work pays when the system you're working in, operates fairly.
And to think, these workers were putting in more than eight hours a day, sometimes over 40 hours a week of pain staking work but many of them weren’t getting paid overtime.
Some of them were paid less than the minimum wage and to make matters worse, they didn’t even get sick leave or proper pay stubs. The matter gets even worse because the bosses had workers on multiple payrolls from different companies, just so they could dodge legal obligations.
This was a very clear attempt to cheat the people actually doing the work. I stand to be corrected but I think during the work, the bosses probably spent more time figuring out loopholes than actually running the projects.
As stated, the total fines were over $2.3 million and that includes unpaid wages, damages and interests. Doing the math, that averages out to about $18,900 per worker, enough to buy some peace of mind for a year or two of back breaking labor in LA.
Office jobs are stressful but these kinds of jobs are more physically demanding. You would have to be involved in framing, tiling, plumbing and painting. The work is hard, the pay should reflect that and thank God at least the law agrees.
Some companies would rather smartly break the rules than treat people fairly.
The Bureau of Field Enforcement has been cracking down on employers for years and in the past few years alone, they’ve recovered over $43 million in stolen wages and penalties. That's workers' money being denied although the work was done.
Tens of thousands of workers have been ripped off before this particular case even came up and it only happens because companies think they can get away with it. They've got some smart lawyers, bad actors and connections to get away with stealing worker pay.
A lot of workers these days are even juggling multiple jobs and wondering if their paycheck will actually cover rent, bills or groceries. They can't even start thinking about savings and investments, they're on survival mode because some bosses are cheating.
Loyalty to your employer, the concept is sometimes a joke, not always, there are good bosses but well you've seen the news.
The companies involved tried to use legal loopholes to hide behind corporate structures, but the truth is simple, if your job can’t pay you what you’re owed or give you basic rights, you are not working for someone who values you. There are situations where the company is not doing well enough and that's understandable but in some cases the company is thriving and the worker is getting less and less.
So we keep grinding for someone else’s profit instead of our own.
Workers deserve better. They deserve wages they can survive on, respect for their time and sacrifices and also workplaces that don’t treat them like they're replaceable. Cases like this is why it's necessary to fight for labor rights.
The point I really want to make is don’t buy into the just work harder myth. Work smart, know your rights and support efforts that make bosses accountable. Because if 124 workers can be cheated out of millions, imagine how many more are being taken advantage of on a daily basis.
Screenshot taken from this site showing hard working construction workers in Los Angeles
