Pay scams for day laborers increase during tight economy
August 15, 2009
Virginia Pilot
by: Ricardo Lopez
April's rent was due soon. Edgar Cardenos and his wife, pregnant with their second daughter, worried they wouldn't be able to pay it because neither was working.
In the midst of their job searching, the phone rang. A subcontractor was looking for workers, a friend informed Cardenos. Come to the Outback Steakhouse on Laskin Road. A contractor has work.
Cardenos wasted no time. He hung up and drove to meet the subcontractor he knows only as John at the restaurant's parking lot. A group of about 13 men were already working. John said he would pay them $15 an hour. For the next two weeks, he joined the crew installing drywall and exterior siding, and redoing the ceiling as part of the restaurant's renovation.
When the work was over, the crew walked away with checks for a week's worth of pay. The rest would come later, the representative for the subcontractor told them.
But it didn't, and the first check bounced. An employee at the check-cashing store later told Cardenos he'd have to return the money immediately.
Perhaps there was some mistake, he thought as he tried calling John. For the next several weeks, he called regularly only to leave messages that went unreturned. Frustrated and angry, he gave up.
Cardenos, 30, of Nicaragua, is not alone. The same situation is occurring frequently to other Hampton Roads day laborers, say advocacy groups and police. This summer, The Pilot interviewed a group of Spanish-speaking day laborers about their pay situation.
The tight economy and the laborers' undocumented status has contributed to the rising number of cases in the region, but few workers ever file formal complaints in civil courts or state and federal labor agencies. Day laborers who are in the country illegally say employers threaten to report them if they attempt to recoup wages, and they are often unaware of possible courses of actions.
When it comes to pay, federal and state labor laws make no mention of immigration status. Day laborers can file wage complaints with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, said Wendy Inge, director of labor and employment.
"We want to encourage day laborers to file claims," she said. "We don't check for documentation because that's not a part of what we enforce."
Inge said the state's department of labor gets occasional claims from undocumented workers but does not track the number of these types of cases.
"This is a fairly typical scenario," said Hugo Valverde, a Virginia Beach immigration lawyer.
"General contractors hire subcontractors who hire a bunch of day laborers and work on fairly visible construction sites like Outback," he said. "When someone gets hurt, they disappear. They write bad checks, they disappear."
Few day laborers take claims to civil court, Valverde said. Language barriers and the complicated legal process intimidate them.
"Our firm hasn't had a whole lot of cases, probably a handful," Valverde said.
"We paid our contractor in full, and we don't know that they hired day laborers," said Joe Kadow, executive vice president of OSI Restaurant Partners Inc., a Tampa-based company that owns Outback Steakhouse and other restaurants nationwide.
Kadow hired Crossection Inc., a general contractor based in Sterling, Va., for the renovation. Crossection works on large commercial projects in several states, including Florida, Virginia and Colorado, according to its Web site.
Kadow said Crossection then hired other subcontractors to do electrical, plumbing and other work.
"We didn't hire them. The subcontractor did," he said. "We're two steps removed from the process."
Crossection did not respond to messages and e-mails for comment on this story.
The non profit group Tenants and Workers United, based in Alexandria, said this pay situation is becoming more common in today's economy.
"A lot of contractors are taking advantage of the workers' situation, and the economy is a factor," said Jose Gonzalez, a coordinator for Tenants and Workers United, who works to recover unpaid wages for day laborers.
"I think the economy has caused a spike in these cases by as much as 50 percent," he said.
In the past six months, Gonzalez said, his case load has jumped from three to four cases a day to an average of 10, and few involve private residents who hire day laborers.
In a little more than a year, Tenants and Workers United has worked to recover almost $200,000 in unpaid wages. Of that, only $35,000 has come back, Gonzalez said.
The group contacts employers directly to try to reach a payment agreement, he said. "Civil cases are a waste of time. If you take a case to court, you'll fight for two or three months, the judge gives you a verdict, and then the contractor doesn't pay up or disappears."
Day laborers in Hampton Roads are typically single men who arrive from Mexico, Central and South America knowing a family member or acquaintance who points them in the direction of a job or may have room to house them.
New arrivals crowd into scantly furnished apartments meant for two, sharing space with a half dozen or more men. During the day, the apartment stands vacant, but the evenings bring the return of hungry, tired workers.
Those who have lived in the U.S. for longer, like Cardenos, may start families and move out into rented homes.
Cardenos, who has been in the United States for almost eight years, lived in Florida, North Carolina and Connecticut before coming to Virginia Beach about a year ago.
When the check bounced in March, he was late to pay the rent, and his landlord threatened to evict them. He paid late fees with a loan from a friend, and eventually, moved his family into a smaller home with a more affordable rent.
"Finding stable work is really hard, and I never know when I'll be working," he said.
Unlike larger day laborer populations in northern Virginia and other parts of the country, Hampton Roads' population of undocumented workers is fragmented and lacks the same visibility and organization. The population is hard to count, say U.S. census officials, because this segment of the Hispanic population is leery of authority. They are not included in the population estimate of about 60,000 Hispanics in Hampton Roads.
Not many wait for work on busy street corners, as is customary in the D.C. metro area, Cardenos said. Work often comes by word of mouth. If a contractor is looking for workers, the news spreads quickly.
Mayra Creed, chairwoman of the Hispanic Advisory Committee in Newport News, said part of her group's work includes reaching out to day laborers to educate them about federal and state labor laws.
Creed has visited apartment complexes where day laborers live handing out fliers, and she hears many of the complaints.
"We're not here to change any policies or laws, but we just want to make sure they know the laws exist," she said.
Creed and others have this advice for day laborers to protect themselves: Before getting to work, make a binding agreement with witnesses present and keep records.
"They need to start taking pictures, write down addresses, names and phone numbers," she said.
"At the end of the day, any human being who works is entitled to pay, regardless whether they're documented or not. Period."
Cardenos, who has applied for a federal tax ID number to pay income taxes, currently works two painting jobs. He works one job from 7 a.m to 4 p.m., and drives immediately to the next to work until midnight or 1 a.m.
"It's very difficult to have to go through that situation where you don't get paid," he said. "I have a family to take care of."
Virginia Pilot
by: Ricardo Lopez
April's rent was due soon. Edgar Cardenos and his wife, pregnant with their second daughter, worried they wouldn't be able to pay it because neither was working.
In the midst of their job searching, the phone rang. A subcontractor was looking for workers, a friend informed Cardenos. Come to the Outback Steakhouse on Laskin Road. A contractor has work.
Cardenos wasted no time. He hung up and drove to meet the subcontractor he knows only as John at the restaurant's parking lot. A group of about 13 men were already working. John said he would pay them $15 an hour. For the next two weeks, he joined the crew installing drywall and exterior siding, and redoing the ceiling as part of the restaurant's renovation.
When the work was over, the crew walked away with checks for a week's worth of pay. The rest would come later, the representative for the subcontractor told them.
But it didn't, and the first check bounced. An employee at the check-cashing store later told Cardenos he'd have to return the money immediately.
Perhaps there was some mistake, he thought as he tried calling John. For the next several weeks, he called regularly only to leave messages that went unreturned. Frustrated and angry, he gave up.
Cardenos, 30, of Nicaragua, is not alone. The same situation is occurring frequently to other Hampton Roads day laborers, say advocacy groups and police. This summer, The Pilot interviewed a group of Spanish-speaking day laborers about their pay situation.
The tight economy and the laborers' undocumented status has contributed to the rising number of cases in the region, but few workers ever file formal complaints in civil courts or state and federal labor agencies. Day laborers who are in the country illegally say employers threaten to report them if they attempt to recoup wages, and they are often unaware of possible courses of actions.
When it comes to pay, federal and state labor laws make no mention of immigration status. Day laborers can file wage complaints with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, said Wendy Inge, director of labor and employment.
"We want to encourage day laborers to file claims," she said. "We don't check for documentation because that's not a part of what we enforce."
Inge said the state's department of labor gets occasional claims from undocumented workers but does not track the number of these types of cases.
"This is a fairly typical scenario," said Hugo Valverde, a Virginia Beach immigration lawyer.
"General contractors hire subcontractors who hire a bunch of day laborers and work on fairly visible construction sites like Outback," he said. "When someone gets hurt, they disappear. They write bad checks, they disappear."
Few day laborers take claims to civil court, Valverde said. Language barriers and the complicated legal process intimidate them.
"Our firm hasn't had a whole lot of cases, probably a handful," Valverde said.
"We paid our contractor in full, and we don't know that they hired day laborers," said Joe Kadow, executive vice president of OSI Restaurant Partners Inc., a Tampa-based company that owns Outback Steakhouse and other restaurants nationwide.
Kadow hired Crossection Inc., a general contractor based in Sterling, Va., for the renovation. Crossection works on large commercial projects in several states, including Florida, Virginia and Colorado, according to its Web site.
Kadow said Crossection then hired other subcontractors to do electrical, plumbing and other work.
"We didn't hire them. The subcontractor did," he said. "We're two steps removed from the process."
Crossection did not respond to messages and e-mails for comment on this story.
The non profit group Tenants and Workers United, based in Alexandria, said this pay situation is becoming more common in today's economy.
"A lot of contractors are taking advantage of the workers' situation, and the economy is a factor," said Jose Gonzalez, a coordinator for Tenants and Workers United, who works to recover unpaid wages for day laborers.
"I think the economy has caused a spike in these cases by as much as 50 percent," he said.
In the past six months, Gonzalez said, his case load has jumped from three to four cases a day to an average of 10, and few involve private residents who hire day laborers.
In a little more than a year, Tenants and Workers United has worked to recover almost $200,000 in unpaid wages. Of that, only $35,000 has come back, Gonzalez said.
The group contacts employers directly to try to reach a payment agreement, he said. "Civil cases are a waste of time. If you take a case to court, you'll fight for two or three months, the judge gives you a verdict, and then the contractor doesn't pay up or disappears."
Day laborers in Hampton Roads are typically single men who arrive from Mexico, Central and South America knowing a family member or acquaintance who points them in the direction of a job or may have room to house them.
New arrivals crowd into scantly furnished apartments meant for two, sharing space with a half dozen or more men. During the day, the apartment stands vacant, but the evenings bring the return of hungry, tired workers.
Those who have lived in the U.S. for longer, like Cardenos, may start families and move out into rented homes.
Cardenos, who has been in the United States for almost eight years, lived in Florida, North Carolina and Connecticut before coming to Virginia Beach about a year ago.
When the check bounced in March, he was late to pay the rent, and his landlord threatened to evict them. He paid late fees with a loan from a friend, and eventually, moved his family into a smaller home with a more affordable rent.
"Finding stable work is really hard, and I never know when I'll be working," he said.
Unlike larger day laborer populations in northern Virginia and other parts of the country, Hampton Roads' population of undocumented workers is fragmented and lacks the same visibility and organization. The population is hard to count, say U.S. census officials, because this segment of the Hispanic population is leery of authority. They are not included in the population estimate of about 60,000 Hispanics in Hampton Roads.
Not many wait for work on busy street corners, as is customary in the D.C. metro area, Cardenos said. Work often comes by word of mouth. If a contractor is looking for workers, the news spreads quickly.
Mayra Creed, chairwoman of the Hispanic Advisory Committee in Newport News, said part of her group's work includes reaching out to day laborers to educate them about federal and state labor laws.
Creed has visited apartment complexes where day laborers live handing out fliers, and she hears many of the complaints.
"We're not here to change any policies or laws, but we just want to make sure they know the laws exist," she said.
Creed and others have this advice for day laborers to protect themselves: Before getting to work, make a binding agreement with witnesses present and keep records.
"They need to start taking pictures, write down addresses, names and phone numbers," she said.
"At the end of the day, any human being who works is entitled to pay, regardless whether they're documented or not. Period."
Cardenos, who has applied for a federal tax ID number to pay income taxes, currently works two painting jobs. He works one job from 7 a.m to 4 p.m., and drives immediately to the next to work until midnight or 1 a.m.
"It's very difficult to have to go through that situation where you don't get paid," he said. "I have a family to take care of."