What there is to know
- The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced the creation of a unit to investigate and prosecute wage theft, sweatshops and other forms of workplace harassment in New York City.
- The aptly named “Worker Protection Unit” (or Worker Protection Unit) aims to criminally prosecute individuals and entities that endanger worker safety and/or steal their wages.
- According to the district attorney’s office, currently individuals and entities that steal workers’ wages are typically charged with scheme to defraud, a misdemeanor under state law. A recently introduced bill aims to fix this problem and make it a crime.
NEW YORK — The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced the creation of a unit to investigate and prosecute wage theft, sweatshops and other forms of workplace harassment in New York City.
The aptly named “Workers Protection Unit” (or Worker Protection Unit) aims to criminally prosecute individuals and entities that endanger worker safety and/or steal their wages.
“At the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, we hold accountable companies and executives who exploit their workers, whether by endangering their safety or stealing their pay,” said the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, in a statement. “Unity is our latest initiative to defend hard-working New Yorkers. Time and time again, we see corporations taking advantage of our most vulnerable populations, including low-income and undocumented New Yorkers, and abusing power imbalances to line their pockets. .
According to the district attorney’s office, citing the Cornell University Workers’ Institute, wage theft in New York amounts to approximately $1 billion in lost wages each year, affecting tens of thousands of workers. Now a new fund has $100,000 for these workers to get some of their money back, because right now, even if they sue and win, they still don’t get paid.
“We are committed to not only suing but recovering lost wages,” Bragg said.
The newly revealed unit is an evolution of the Construction Fraud Task Force, which will now be part of the Worker Protection Unit.
The unit will allow prosecutors to expand their reach to other industries with high rates of alleged labor exploitation, such as home health care, fast food, restaurants, hotels and others. According to the district attorney’s office, prosecutors had previously prosecuted wage theft in construction and real estate development.
In addition, the unit will also enforce workplace safety laws, including prosecuting employers who create unsafe work environments by filing charges of recklessness and manslaughter against them.
The creation of this unit is intended to address a problem that currently lacks support in state law. New York State does not consider wage theft to be property theft, which means prosecutors cannot charge those who commit wage theft with theft.
According to the district attorney’s office, currently individuals and entities that steal workers’ wages are typically charged with scheme to defraud, a misdemeanor under state law. A recently introduced bill aims to fix this problem and make it a crime.