All Workers Have Rights
All Workers Have Rights
Most workers in this country are employed by businesses that play by the rules, protecting health and safety on the job and paying fairly and in accordance with the law. But for too many, that’s not the case.
These workers are typically employed in low-wage sectors such as agriculture, construction, food service, residential care, and waste processing. Many don’t speak English as their primary language and don’t know their rights. Fearing retaliation or even deportation if they happen to be undocumented, they’re often afraid to speak up.
To educate this vulnerable worker population, the Department of Labor, through its Consular Partnership Program, joins with foreign embassies and their consulates for Labor Rights Week each year leading up to Labor Day. It’s a collaborative effort to increase awareness and inform workers of their rights – and employers of their responsibilities – under U.S. labor laws.
We’re joined by worker rights groups, faith-based and community organizations and local unions, which either host or organize informational workshops, educational sessions, and other special events. Other U.S. government agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board, share information and educational materials on the laws they enforce.
For us, Labor Rights Week is about people like Giovanni E. Tolentino and Allan Butay, residential care workers in the San Francisco Bay Area employed in an industry where foreign workers are prevalent. They are among the more than 1,300 residential care workers we’ve helped since 2011 after repeated investigations in the region found that workers were underpaid by millions of dollars.
It’s also about reaching out to protect workers like those employed by Kehrer Brothers Construction in Illinois. The company knowingly exposed non-English speaking workers to asbestos, violating numerous workplace safety and health standards and inexcusably putting their lives at risk.
Of course, informing workers of their rights and protecting them from recalcitrant employers isn’t just something we do during Labor Rights Week; it’s a year-round effort involving Labor Department staff who are actively engaging workers, advocates and employers in communities nationwide.
Through that dedicated outreach and partnerships with groups like EMPLEO, LABORAL, and Justice and Equality in the Workplace, the Wage and Hour Division and Occupational Safety and Health Administration are ensuring workers are paid properly and kept safe on the job.
Wage and Hour Division Investigator Priscilla Cruz speaks to agricultural workers about EMPLEO at the event “Dia del Trabajador Agricola” (Agricultural Worker Day) in Greenfield, Calif. on Aug. 30, 2015. More than 5,000 people attended the event.
Through strategic enforcement and complaints filed by informed workers, investigations nationwide during fiscal year 2014 found that as many as 270,000 workers in low-wage industries were underpaid by more than $240 million. Our top priority is to make sure that money gets into the hands of those who’ve earned it. To assist us in that process, we created a new online tool called Workers Owed Wages, allowing workers to see if we’ve collected and are holding money for them.
To ensure that workers return home safely at the end of their workday, OSHA strictly enforces the laws protecting worker safety and health. Employers are required to provide workers with the equipment they need to do their jobs safely, and training in a language they can understand. OSHA has many resources online, including videos on workers’ rights in English and Spanish and a special message for the Hispanic workforce.
Reducing worker exposures to hazardous situations and ensuring a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work is an all-hands-on-deck enterprise. This Labor Rights Week and every week, we work with communities, advocates, and vulnerable workers to make sure they know their rights under federal law.
You can follow our efforts on Twitter using #LaborRightsWeek and #IHaveRights. We’ll also be getting the message out in Spanish at @USDOL_Latino, as well as through Facebook.
Dr. David Michaels is the assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health and Dr. David Weil is the administrator of the Wage and Hour Division.