Undocumented immigrants enduring abuses from employers such as wage theft, safety infractions and gender discrimination can now obtain deportation relief when they report workplace violations to a government agency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently announced. The new policy grants temporary legal status to workers who cooperate with investigators.

Workers’ rights groups have been urging the federal government to expand existing protections for foreign workers after Public Integrity described the increased risk of wage theft and unsafe working conditions immigrants faced during the pandemic. Undocumented workers often avoid reporting labor violations because employers can punish them by revealing their legal status to immigration authorities.

The new rules expand what is known as “Deferred Action” — a discretionary and temporary form of immigration relief. The program is most often used to obtain deportation protection for crime victims or witnesses who cooperate with law enforcement. 

The process will now be simplified and expedited, with only one U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office handling all applications. The agency will also speed up the process for workers to receive temporary work permits.

Sur Legal, a non-profit legal aid group based in Atlanta, is one of the organizations that pushed for the changes. 

“This is an important step towards empowering immigrant workers to hold abusive employers accountable and improving working conditions for all workers,” the group tweeted in response to the announcement.

Last year, as part of a series called “Cheated at Work,” Public Integrity investigated immigrant workers’ vulnerability to wage theft and retaliation. The story reported that in August 2021, labor officials obtained a court order to stop a New York business owner from allegedly threatening to call immigration officials if employees cooperated with a wage-violation investigation.

Another “Cheated at Work” story focused on low-wage foreign workers with seasonal work visas that tie them to one employer. If they walk off a job, workers lose their visas. 

A seasonal crawfish worker in Louisiana attempted to persuade the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2020 that she left her job, temporarily, to seek medical care because she was ill with COVID-19. She said she feared receiving inadequate medical care if confined to quarantine housing. 

In the end, OSHA said it found “insufficient evidence” that she was unfairly fired. Labor wage investigators, however, subsequently found that the guest workers and 99 others at the company had been shortchanged on overtime pay in 2020.

“Unscrupulous employers who prey on the vulnerability of noncitizen workers harm all workers and disadvantage businesses who play by the rules,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, in his announcement. “We will hold these predatory actors accountable by encouraging all workers to assert their rights, report violations they have suffered or observed, and cooperate in labor standards investigations.”  

The move reflects a broader, worker-friendly approach to immigration enforcement from President Joe Biden’s administration. In October 2021, Mayorkas ordered DHS to stop large worksite raids and instead investigate companies that exploit undocumented workers.

The post New DHS policy protects undocumented whistleblowers appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

Economists estimate wage theft costs workers more than $15 billion a year. Journalists at the Center for Public Integrity spent a year investigating how widespread the practice is and how effectively the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division combats this systemic problem.

Now we’re making the data and code that drove these investigations available to the public.

Our reporting found:

• Companies that repeatedly steal from employees rarely face enhanced penalties for repeated violations.
• The United States Postal Service is one of the worst offenders.
• The higher an industry’s share of immigrant workers, the greater the rate of wage theft.
• Explosive growth in guest worker visas has not been accompanied by an equivalent increase in wage theft investigations.

Here’s what we’re releasing: 

• Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division closed investigative cases from fiscal year 2006 through 2020, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.
• American Community Survey microdata on employment by nativity status and industry from IPUMS USA.
• Visa totals for fiscal years 2011 to 2019 from the U.S. Department of State.

Our analysis

As is typical with data-driven investigations, we had to deal with challenges and come up with creative solutions. 

For a story in May about companies that were repeat offenders of wage regulations, we grouped employers by their employer identification number (EIN) because the names of companies were inconsistent in the data. EINs were either missing or withheld in about one third of cases involving minimum wage or overtime violations. We excluded those cases from portions of the analysis based on specific companies. For example, some employers used Social Security numbers in place of EINs and those numbers were withheld for privacy reasons. We did not include those employers when calculating the proportion of repeat offenders fined by the WHD. When calculating overall figures such as the total money improperly withheld from employees each year, we used the entire universe of cases.

As we began working on our story focused on immigrant workers, we faced another challenge : How to quantify the number of immigrant workers and the industries that have been cited the most for cheating those workers. The WHD does not document immigration status when conducting investigations, so we used American Community Survey data to calculate the proportion of foreign workers by industry. And because the two sets of data use different industry codes, we relied on a crosswalk to match them. By combining the data sets, we were able to calculate the rate of wage theft cases per 100,000 workers for 95 industries along with the proportion of foreign-born workers in each industry.

For our reporting on the vulnerability of guest workers to wage theft, the last story in our series, we again turned to the WHD data. We wanted to highlight some of the specific obligations employers have to guest workers when it comes to issues such as reimbursing visa and transportation costs to and from their U.S. worksites to the workers’ homes outside the United States. The data contains more than 1,000 violations, with more than 250 violations related to guest workers who use H-2A or H-2B visas. Because the descriptions of violations varied widely, we grouped them into broad categories such as “cost-shifting” and “housing” to provide meaningful analysis to readers.

Interested in using this data for your own reporting? You can find all the data along with the code we used to produce our analyses on GitHub. Journalists, researchers and anyone else with questions about how to use the data can contact Public Integrity data reporter Joe Yerardi at jyerardi@publicintegrity.org.

The post Public Integrity makes data behind “Cheated at Work” available appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

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For Maribel Hernández, falling ill with COVID-19 at a Louisiana crawfish processor and losing her job was terrible enough. But the Mexican guest worker was in for another shock. A federal labor investigation in 2020, initially focusing on worksite safety, revealed that the company failed to pay Hernández and 99 other guest workers a total of $138,629 in overtime earnings.  

The 100 workers were deprived of pay “amid the pandemic, when food industry workers put themselves at risk to support the economy,” U.S. Labor Department officials announced in August of 2021. Officials recently told the Center for Public Integrity that 35 of the foreign workers were also owed $12,922 in sick pay required under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. 

Shortchanging workers such as Hernández isn’t an isolated problem. From 2005 to 2020, U.S. employers around the country were ordered to pay more than $42.5 million in back wages to 69,000 workers who perform seasonal low-wage jobs on H-2A and H-2B visas.

But labor advocates are worried that many more workers are being cheated. They’re also concerned that investigations by the Labor Department — which has special oversight over guest workers — aren’t keeping pace with a dramatic increase in workers. Closed cases focused on allegations of violations specific to H-2A and H-2B visas increased only slightly from 424 cases in 2011 to 478 in 2019, according to a Public Integrity analysis of department data. Over the same period, the total number of these annual guest worker visas issued leaped from 106,000 to 302,000. Demand for more visas is surging, despite the Trump era rise in anti-foreign worker rhetoric in some states.

Like anyone employed in the U.S., guest workers have protections under the law and the right to complain to government officials, confidentially, about suspected wage theft. But advocates say that workers often hesitate because of the very structure of the H-2A and H-2B visa programs. They’re uniquely vulnerable: Guest workers’ visas tie them to a specific employer, and if a boss even suspects they’re whistleblowers, workers can fear they’ll lose their visas and a coveted chance to work legally in the United States. 

“The workers who contact us, we talk to them, and a lot of them know that their rights are being violated,” said Caitlin Berberich, attorney with Southern Migrant Legal Services in Nashville,  whose clients seeking pro bono legal aid include guest workers. But many choose not to act.   

In the spring of 2020, Hernández’s immediate concern was health, not pay. She and other H-2B workers at Acadia Processors LLC in Crowley, Louisiana, began testing positive for the coronavirus. Supervisors first confined those with COVID-19 symptoms to company bunkhouses, then on May 15 ordered workers to board vehicles bound for state-supplied quarantine housing, Hernández said in a complaint she later filed with the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Coughing and in pain, Hernández and a co-worker instead headed to a hospital. They’d complained that the company was slow to prevent virus spread at work, and worried that they might not receive medical care in quarantine. 

The women say they intended to resume work once healthy. But the women claim a company liaison they spoke to from the hospital told them Acadia was required to report them to immigration officials for leaving work in violation of their visas. The women filed a complaint a few weeks later with the Labor Department claiming they’d been fired in retaliation for voicing safety concerns. “I feared that staying in the quarantine housing would put my life in jeopardy,” Hernández told investigators in a sworn written statement.

Six months later, the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found “insufficient evidence” to support the claim. But OSHA alerted the department’s Wage and Hour Division to suspected sick pay violations — and that led to the discovery that Acadia hadn’t properly calculated overtime pay and bonuses per pound of crawfish processed.  

Hernández was home in Veracruz state, Mexico, when she learned of these findings. She’d left Louisiana in June of 2020 after she felt better. She eventually received a share of overtime wages and sick pay owed, which officials say Acadia has fully paid. But she missed two months of work after losing her employer-sponsored visa. 

Acadia Processing didn’t respond to requests for comment. SeafoodSource.com  reported last year that Julie Broussard, a co-owner, told the industry news website: “It is our policy not to comment on legal matters.”  In June 2020, a year before the wage violation was announced, the Lafayette Advertiser spoke to Scott Broussard, a co-owner, who said Hernández and her co-worker were not fired but had “fled the scene.” He also said that Acadia had followed all the state’s recommendations for personal protective equipment and social distancing.”   

Hernández is still upset — yet she wants to be a guest worker again. 

“The truth is: I want to go back,” the 31-year-old mother said during a phone interview. “I’m trying to find a new job now so I can work again and support my family.”

Enduring abuse to keep visas

Hernández’s disappointment — and desire — is not unusual among guest workers.

H-2B visas for non-farm work and H-2A visas for farm labor don’t pave the way to legally immigrate. But they do allow foreigners to legally, if temporarily, spend months at a time earning far more than at home. Mexico’s minimum daily wage is only $7.15 in U.S. dollars. Compare that to the $9.75 an hour and $14.63 for overtime beyond 40 hours a week that Acadia Processors said its guest workers would earn. If they were fast, workers could earn more than hourly minimums if they were paid by the pound of crawfish they peeled, according to Labor Department records. 

But despite reams of visa-specific regulations and statutes, guest workers can feel powerless.  Most speak little English. They often work in isolated areas and depend on employers for daily needs. Some depend on bosses for meals. H-2A workers count on housing that employers are required to provide for free. Hernández and her H-2B co-workers lived in company housing for $50 a week. Most of all, workers depend on employers for visas. And to keep visas, some have endured stark abuse.  

Federal prosecutors in California, Florida and Georgia allege that labor contracting networks not only stole wages, but also committed visa fraud and other crimes. In Georgia, armed individuals allegedly menaced guest workers in fields. Less dramatic but more common are allegations of bosses cheating on overtime, refusing to pay visa and travel costs, as required, and manipulating the visa system to lower workers’ pay. 

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About this series

U.S employers that illegally underpay workers face few repercussions, even when they do so repeatedly. This widespread practice perpetuates income inequality, hitting lowest-paid workers hardest.

Read more

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“These programs are fundamentally flawed,” said Evy Peña, development director in Mexico City for the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, the Center for Migrant Rights, a group based in Baltimore and Mexico. The center helped Hernández file her OSHA complaint. 

Trouble starts, Peña said, because U.S. law ties workers’ visas to sponsoring employers. Workers can’t just quit and quickly find another job at will. Because of this, advocates are urging President Joe Biden’s administration to do more to protect workers who speak up from sacrificing visas and income their families need, as Hernández did. What’s more, outspoken workers risk blacklisting from future jobs, which, like retaliation, is illegal. But getting involved in a lengthy investigation can also be daunting for guest workers. Labor Department data also shows that half of H-2A and H-2B probes last seven months or longer, compared to four months for all wage theft cases.

Wage investigators declined an interview, but in an email said their unit “takes retaliation very seriously and uses all tools at its disposal when encountering employers that have engaged in retaliatory activity.” 

Some guest workers, as an alternative, turn to pro bono or other attorneys they’ve heard are trustworthy.

A civil lawsuit filed last October in Louisiana, for example, accuses Sterling Sugars Sales Corp., a Franklin sugarcane processor, of having “knowingly made false statements” when it applied to the Labor Department for required clearance for guest workers. Filed by Southern Migrant Legal Services, the suit on behalf of 14 workers alleges that Sterling “knowingly misrepresented” workers’ duties by claiming that they’d be “agricultural equipment operators” eligible for H-2A farmworker visas. 

Instead, the complaint alleges, the workers’ sole job was to drive big rig trucks between processors and cane fields owned by other employers. Workers earned a local guest farmworker rate of $11.88 an hour in 2021, about 40% less than comparable trucker work in the area, according to the suit. Since most of these farmworkers are exempt from federal overtime rules, Sterling also allegedly avoided paying overtime — although workers often allegedly drove as many as 80 hours a week.

If workers had H-2B instead of H-2A visas, the suit argues, pay rates would be set much higher. 

Sterling didn’t respond to requests for comment, but denied wrongdoing in an initial response filed last December in U.S. District Court in Lafayette. The workers’ suit, the company argues, misstates “laws, regulations and statutes” governing guest worker programs.  Among other defenses, it alleged that its “pay practices do not and at no time did violate” the Fair Labor Standards Act, whose provisions include overtime pay requirements.

Placing workers in the wrong visa category isn’t the only way businesses can try to game the visa system. Since 2010, labor officials have confirmed 757 instances when H-2B workers performed duties that should have merited higher pay. Employers had to pay $880,000 in back wages.

To bring in guest workers, businesses must prove to the Labor Department’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification that advertising didn’t attract enough U.S. workers. Then they ask the Department of Homeland Security for clearance for visas.   

Regardless of how many individual job requests labor officials certify, Congress has capped H-2B visas at 66,000 a year. But the system includes exemptions and authorizes the Labor  Department and Homeland Security to jointly add more visas if they’re convinced businesses could otherwise suffer harm. Last year labor officials certified 181,451 H-2B jobs, far more than double the cap. In response, 20,000 more H-2B visas  have been added this year for businesses to use. H-2A visas are uncapped. Labor certifications for H-2A jobs more than doubled since 2016 and surpassed more than 317,600 in 2021.  

More than 90% of H-2A and 75% of H-2B workers are from Mexico. The programs echo the former Bracero Program, a World War II-era agreement with Mexico to supply guest workers to fill U.S. farm labor shortages. Braceros, a name derived from Spanish for “arms,” continued to be recruited until Congress ended the program in 1964 due to complaints of harsh treatment.  

Managing visas, creeping corruption

To deter abuse, U.S. consular staff who interview guest workers before granting them visas provide the workers with online information and pamphlets about their rights —  including the right to complain confidentially to labor officials. 

Meanwhile, labor investigators are subject to business pressure to soften oversight. Since 2016, language attached to the Labor Department’s budget has forbidden the agency from enforcing a wage rule for H-2B workers that industries argue is too onerous. With some exceptions, the rule is that if work slows — if crawfish supply drops, for example  — guest workers must still be paid for three-fourths of the work hours contracts promised.  

To prevent businesses from using guest workers to depress wages, labor officials are empowered to set minimum pay for these jobs higher than local or prevailing rates. But Center for Migrants Rights legal director Benjamin Botts, a former Labor Department attorney, said he’s seen  employers get around protections.   

A yearslong case Botts handled in Salinas, California, led to an order to pay $1.1 million in back wages and other damages in 2016 for strawberry workers whom officials said were underpaid and extorted. Fernandez Farms managers told a group of 85 to 90 guest farmworkers they wouldn’t get jobs again, officials said, if they revealed to investigators that bosses were charging for housing and refusing to reimburse visa and travel costs that for one woman added up to $1,500. An administrative law judge determined that supervisors “made it clear to the workers that if they did disclose violations, there would be repercussions, and told the workers that the investigators would not follow through on any promises.” 

Extortion is illegal on both sides of the border. But as a Government Accountability Office report recognizes, some recruiters in Mexico have demanded kickbacks for reserving jobs for workers. A bribe is considered a “cost-shifting” violation that eats into workers’ financial compensation. Failing to reimburse workers’ expenses for visas and trips to and from U.S. jobs is another cost-shifting violation. Labor Department data shows investigators confirmed nearly 22,000 cost-shifting violations resulting in payment of $3.7 million in back wages from 2005 to 2020.

Investigators also confirmed 2,300 violations of H-2A housing rules resulting in $670,000 in payments to workers. 

Advocates say workers often endure some cheating to preserve what money they do get. Peer pressure can also be a factor.  

“There are entire communities in Mexico that are reliant on these programs,” Peña of the Center for Migrant Rights in Mexico said. “If anyone reports abuse, it can mean that employers can retaliate not only against those specific workers who are speaking out, but also against their family members in the community.”

Louisiana guest workers Olivia Guzmán and her husband Fausto García faced pressure in Mexico as well as blacklisting from U.S. crawfish industry jobs, according to complaints they filed in 2014 and 2015, respectively, with the National Labor Relations Board. They settled their cases with compensation. In a rare recognition of harm suffered, they were also cleared recently for U visas, U.S. residency permits for crime victims or witnesses who’ve been threatened during U.S. investigations. When Guzmán met with other guest workers in Mexico to discuss concerns, she experienced intimidation, said attorney Mary Yanik, Tulane University Immigrant Rights Law Clinic director in New Orleans.

Guzmán and García belong to the Mexico-based Coalition of Sinaloan Temporary Migrant Workers. From Mexico, Guzmán told Public Integrity that many women who process crawfish complained to her about not getting overtime. “They take advantage of people with hope and desire to work,” she said. 

‘I am the one with the power here’

Last September, the department sued Rivet & Sons, a 6,000-acre Louisiana farm, demanding protections for guest workers and back wages. Three workers fled the farm after workers videotaped Glynn Rivet, then co-owner of Rivet & Sons, as he cursed, brandished two pistols and fired shots near the workers on June 8. The day before, Rivet grew hostile when workers asked for more drinking water and he told them to get it from a ditch, according to the Labor Department’s Sept. 22 lawsuit. 

Officials allege that the same day that Rivet fired his pistols, he transported workers to a field and drove off shouting: “I am the one with the power here.” 

After the pistol incident, workers contacted police, and within days three left the farm, forfeiting jobs they expected to have from March 15 to Jan. 15, labor officials said. “Because [they] were H-2A workers, their choices were limited because they were not free to seek other employment in the United States,” officials wrote in the lawsuit. “In sum, they were trapped with only two choices: stay or go,” and three workers chose to go “to avoid further acts of violence.”

The department is demanding that Rivet & Sons pay workers who fled lost wages, travel costs and other expenses due to losing their jobs. Officials also said that one of Rivet’s sons asked workers to recant what they told police or face losing work because the farm could shut down. 

Glynn Rivet was arrested June 11 and charged with four felony charges of aggravated assault and illegal use of weapons. If he completes a pre-trial diversion program, charges could be dropped. In a Dec. 30 court filing, the Rivet sons asked for the Labor Department’s suit to be halted because they’d removed their father from company ownership and management after the incident. The sons also argue that workers who left did so voluntarily. 

Ideally, advocates argue, Homeland Security could agree to give guest workers who flee abuse “parole,” a temporary status, and permits to look for other worksites in need of labor. A bill in Congress would provide U visas to such workers but hasn’t advanced.

The Rivet & Sons case isn’t the first time the farm has come up in a labor dispute. Although it isn’t named as a defendant, the company figures prominently in an ongoing class-action lawsuit filed in August of 2020 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. H-2A workers are suing Lowry Farms, an Arkansas labor contractor, accusing it of cheating workers it supplied to Louisiana farms — including Rivet & Sons — between 2016 and 2019. Rivet & Sons is not accused of wrongdoing in the suit. 

Near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, an ongoing Labor Department case against a large sugarcane farm raises fresh concerns about intimidation guest workers can face at their U.S. worksites. Marty Walsh, Biden’s secretary of labor, has said that the department intends to get tougher on employers who exploit the undocumented. In this Louisiana case, officials recognize that guest workers — though here legally — are especially vulnerable because visas tie them to employers. 

Lowry Farms worker Bernabé Antonio Benito says in a sworn statement that he worked in Rivet’s sugarcane fields in 2018 with about 40 other workers. A recruiter in Mexico gave him a document guaranteeing a salary of $10.73 per hour in U.S. dollars, Benito said, but “it was not so.” 

“It was never explained how my salary and those of the other workers with H-2A visas were being paid,” he said, “and it was not clear either whether it was per acre, per workday, or another way. … Most of the time, the check stubs did not show the correct number of hours that I had worked.” 

In a court filing, Lowry Farms denies allegations of wrongdoing. Gregory Thomas, lawyer for the business and owner Michael Clayton Lowry declined to comment. 

According to Labor Department records, officials closed a case in 2015 against a previous Lowry business, Clay Lowry Forestry, after the business paid a total of $2,567 in back wages to 37 H-2B workers and $5,000 in fines. 

“We need to overhaul this entire system,” said the Lowry workers’ attorney, Anne Janet Hernández of the Southern Poverty Law Center, “to make sure that individuals can come here to work and contribute to our economy on their terms and not exploitative terms.” 

Caitlin Berberich, the Southern Migrant Legal Services attorney, agrees. She represents the 14 Sterling Sugars Sales Corporation truckers who allege they were misclassified as H-2A farmworkers and underpaid in Louisiana. H-2A workers are allowed to drive products to storage, but only if they also perform a significant amount of actual farm labor, and only if their boss produces more than half of what they transport. The workers say that wasn’t true for them.

In Mexico, Maribel Hernández, the underpaid Louisiana crawfish worker, has a warning for prospective guest workers who think a permit to work in the United States guarantees fair pay and fair treatment. “Know your rights,” she said. “We came with legal papers, and we went through such pain.”

The post As guest workers increase, so do concerns about wage cheating appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

Since 2011, the U.S. State Department has issued hundreds of thousands of H-2A and H-2B visas annually. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Labor has launched only hundreds of investigations each year into wage theft abuses against these workers. See the charts below for investigations launched and visas issued by year.

Companies employing workers on H-2A or H-2B visas must abide by special regulations meant to protect such employees. Among them are requirements that employers reimburse employees’ visa and travel costs and to provide housing to workers. That doesn’t mean they always do. See the table below for the most common violations related to guest workers from 2005 through 2020.

The use of H-2A and H-2B visa holders varies greatly by industry. They are heavily represented in agriculture work, including as field hands and food processing workers. With more workers comes increased opportunites for abuse. See the table below for the number of guest worker-related investigations by industry, along with the total backwages assessed and the number of investigations per 100,000 total workers from 2005 through 2020.

The post By the numbers: Wage theft investigations, violations appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

Public Integrity has two PDF documents with information about H-2A and H-2B visas. One of these documents has 10 resources for guest workers in the United States with these visas. The other document breaks down how H-2A and H-2B visa programs work. 

We’d like to get this information to as many guest workers as possible. You can help: 

1. If you live in an area where many guest workers also live and work, you can download these flyers and hang them around town: at your grocery store, gas station, public library, community college, house of worship or anywhere else you think many people could see this information. 
2. Contact media@publicintegrity.org if you have any information about where resources like these would be especially helpful. For example, since we know there is a large guest worker population in Crowley, Louisiana, we want to ensure these resources make their way there. If you know any places that we should target send us a note.

The post Resources for guest workers appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

Para Maribel Hernández, enfermarse con covid-19 en una empresa procesadora de langostas de agua dulce (crawfish) en Luisiana y perder su trabajo ya había sido terrible. A la trabajadora mexicana, sin embargo, le esperaba otro golpe. Una investigación federal, realizada en 2020 y enfocada inicialmente en la seguridad laboral del lugar, reveló que la empresa no le pagó a Hernández y a otros 99 trabajadores temporales un total de $138,629 en horas extras. 

Los 100 empleados se vieron privados de su sueldo “en medio de la pandemia, cuando los trabajadores de la industria alimentaria se arriesgaron para apoyar la economía”, según anunciaron funcionarios del Departamento del Trabajo de Estados Unidos en agosto de 2021. Recientemente, los funcionarios le dijeron al Center for Public Integrity que a 35 de los trabajadores extranjeros también se les debían $12,922 en concepto de pago por enfermedad exigido por la Ley Familias Primero de Respuesta al Coronavirus (FFCRA). 

Pagarles de menos a trabajadores como Hernández no es un problema aislado. Entre 2005 y 2020, se les ordenó a empleadores estadounidenses de todo el país que les pagaran más de $42.5 millones en salarios atrasados a 69,000 trabajadores con visados H-2A y H-2B, que realizan labores estacionales de baja remuneración.

Pero a defensores de los trabajadores les preocupa que muchos más empleados estén siendo engañados. También les preocupa que las investigaciones del Departamento del Trabajo — que tiene un control especial sobre estos trabajadores invitados — no sigan el ritmo del enorme aumento de trabajadores. Los casos cerrados enfocados en acusaciones de violaciones específicas de los visas H-2A y H-2B aumentaron solo ligeramente: de 424 casos en 2011 a 478 en 2019, según un análisis de los datos del departamento realizado por Public Integrity. En el mismo periodo, el número total de estas visas anuales para trabajadores invitados pasó de 106,000 a 302,000. La demanda de más visas está creciendo, a pesar del aumento en algunos estados de la retórica contra trabajadores extranjeros que agarró vuelo en la era de Trump.

Como cualquier persona empleada en Estados Unidos, los trabajadores invitados tienen protecciones legales y el derecho a presentar quejas sobre sospechas de robo de salario ante funcionarios del gobierno, y hacerlo de forma confidencial. Pero los defensores dicen que los trabajadores suelen dudar debido a la propia estructura de los programas de visas H-2A y H-2B. Son especialmente vulnerables: las visas de los trabajadores invitados los vinculan a un empleador concreto, y si un jefe sospecha siquiera que son denunciantes, los trabajadores pueden temer perder sus visas y una codiciada oportunidad de trabajar legalmente en Estados Unidos.

“Los trabajadores que se ponen en contacto con nosotros, hablamos con ellos, y muchos de ellos saben que sus derechos están siendo violados”, dijo Caitlin Berberich, abogada de Southern Migrant Legal Services en Nashville, cuyos clientes que buscan ayuda legal pro bono incluyen a trabajadores temporales. Muchos deciden no actuar.  

En la primavera de 2020, la preocupación inmediata de Hernández era la salud, no el sueldo. Ella y otros trabajadores H-2B de Acadia Processors LLC en Crowley, Luisiana, empezaron a dar positivo en las pruebas de coronavirus. Los supervisores primero confinaron a los que tenían síntomas de covid-19 en las literas de la empresa, y luego, el 15 de mayo, ordenaron a los trabajadores que subieran a vehículos con destino a las viviendas de cuarentena suministradas por el estado, dijo Hernández en una queja que presentó posteriormente ante la Administración de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional del Departamento de Trabajo. Tosiendo y adolorida, Hernández y una compañera de trabajo se dirigieron a un hospital. Se quejaron de la lentitud de la empresa a la hora de evitar la propagación del virus en el trabajo, y les preocupaba no recibir atención médica en la cuarentena. 

Las mujeres dicen que tienen la intención de reanudar su trabajo en cuanto estén saludables. Pero afirman que un representante de la empresa con el que hablaron desde el hospital les dijo que Acadia estaba obligada a denunciarlas a los funcionarios de inmigración por abandonar el trabajo violando sus visas. Las mujeres presentaron una queja unas semanas más tarde ante el Departamento del Trabajo en la que alegaron que habían sido despedidas en represalia por haber expresado su preocupación por su seguridad. 

“Temía que quedarme en la vivienda de cuarentena pusiera en peligro mi vida”, dijo Hernández a los investigadores en una declaración jurada por escrito.

Seis meses más tarde, la Administración de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (OSHA) del departamento consideró que no había “evidencia suficiente” para sustentar la reclamación. Pero la OSHA alertó a la División de Salarios y Horas del departamento sobre las sospechas de infracción del pago de la licencia por enfermedad, lo que llevó a descubrir que Acadia no había calculado correctamente el pago de horas extras y primas por libra de cangrejo de río procesada.

Hernández estaba en su casa, en el estado de Veracruz, México, cuando se enteró de estas conclusiones. Había dejado Luisiana en junio de 2020 después de sentirse mejor. Eventualmente, recibió una parte de las horas extras y el pago por enfermedad que se le adeudaba, y que, según los funcionarios, Acadia ha pagado en su totalidad. Pero perdió dos meses de trabajo al perder la visa patrocinada por el empleador. 

Acadia Processing no respondió a las solicitudes de comentarios. SeafoodSource.com informó el año pasado que Julie Broussard, una de las copropietarias, le dijo al sitio web de noticias del sector: “Nuestra política es no comentar sobre asuntos legales”.  En junio de 2020, un año antes de que se anunciara la infracción salarial, el Lafayette Advertiser habló con Scott Broussard, un copropietario, que dijo que Hernández y su compañera de trabajo no fueron despedidas, sino que “huyeron de la escena”. También dijo que Acadia había seguido todas las recomendaciones del estado sobre el equipo de protección personal y el distanciamiento social. 

Hernández sigue molesta — sin embargo, quiere volver a ser una trabajadora con visa temporal.

“La verdad es que quiero regresar”, dijo la madre de 31 años durante una entrevista telefónica. “Estoy tratando de conseguir un nuevo empleo para volver a trabajar y sacar adelante a mi familia”.

Soportar los abusos para mantener la visa

La decepción — y el deseo — de Hernández no es inusual entre los trabajadores invitados.

Las visas H-2B para trabajos no agrícolas y las visas H-2A para trabajos agrícolas no allanan el camino para inmigrar legalmente. Pero sí les permiten a los extranjeros pasar meses ganando mucho más que en sus países de forma legal, aunque sea temporalmente. El salario mínimo diario en México es de sólo el equivalente a 7.15 dólares estadounidenses. Compara esa cifra con los $9.75 por hora y los $14.63 por horas extras más allá de las 40 horas semanales que Acadia Processors prometió que ganarían sus trabajadores invitados. Si eran rápidos, podrían ganar más que el mínimo por hora si se les pagaba por libra de langosta de agua dulce (crawfish) que pelaran, según los registros del Departamento de Trabajo. 

A pesar de la gran cantidad de reglamentos y estatutos específicos sobre visas, los trabajadores invitados pueden sentirse impotentes.  La mayoría habla poco inglés. A menudo trabajan en zonas aisladas y dependen de los empleadores para sus necesidades diarias. Algunos dependen de los jefes para comer. Los trabajadores H-2A cuentan con un alojamiento que los empleadores están obligados a proporcionar de forma gratuita. Hernández y sus compañeros de trabajo con visas H-2B se hospedaban en una vivienda de la empresa por $50 a la semana. Pero, sobre todo, los trabajadores dependen de los empleadores para obtener las visas. Y, por mantenerlas, algunos han soportado abusos brutales. 

Los fiscales federales de California, Florida y Georgia alegan que las redes de contratación de fuerza laboral no sólo robaron salarios, sino que también cometieron fraude de visas y otros delitos. En Georgia, individuos armados presuntamente amenazaron a trabajadores temporales en los campos. Menos dramáticas, pero más comunes, son las acusaciones de que los jefes hacen trampas con las horas extras, se niegan a pagar los gastos de visas y de viaje, como se les exige, y manipulan el sistema de visados para rebajar el sueldo de los trabajadores.

“Estos programas están fundamentalmente viciados”, dijo Evy Peña, directora de desarrollo en la Ciudad de México del Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, un grupo con sede en Baltimore y México. El centro ayudó a Hernández a presentar su denuncia ante la OSHA. 

Los problemas comienzan, dijo Peña, porque la ley estadounidense vincula las visas de los trabajadores a los empleadores que los patrocinan. Así, los trabajadores no pueden renunciar y encontrar rápidamente otro trabajo a voluntad. Por ello, los defensores instan a la administración del presidente Joe Biden a hacer más para proteger a los trabajadores que denuncien abusos, para que no sacrifiquen los visados y los ingresos que necesitan sus familias, como hizo Hernández. Además, los trabajadores que hablan francamente se arriesgan a ser incluidos en una lista negra para futuros trabajos, lo que, al igual que las represalias, es ilegal. Pero verse envueltos en una larga investigación también puede ser desalentador para ellos. Los datos del Departamento del Trabajo muestran que la mitad de las investigaciones H-2A y H-2B duran siete meses o más, en comparación con los cuatro meses de todos los casos de robo de salarios.

Oficiales encargados de investigar denuncias de salarios declinaron conceder una entrevista, pero en un correo electrónico dijeron que su unidad “se toma las represalias muy en serio y utiliza todas las herramientas a su disposición cuando se encuentra con empleadores que han tomado medidas de represalia”.

Algunos trabajadores invitados, como alternativa, recurren a abogados pro bono o a otros defensores que han escuchado son de confianza.

Una demanda civil presentada el pasado octubre en Luisiana, por ejemplo, acusa a Sterling Sugars Sales Corp., una empresa procesadora de caña de azúcar de Franklin, de haber “hecho declaraciones falsas deliberadamente” cuando le solicitó al Departamento del Trabajo la autorización requerida para los trabajadores temporales. Presentada por el Southern Migrant Legal Services, la demanda en nombre de 14 empleados alega que Sterling “tergiversó deliberadamente” las funciones de los trabajadores al afirmar que serían “operadores de equipos agrícolas” elegibles para las visas de trabajadores agrícolas H-2A.

En cambio, según la demanda, la única tarea de los trabajadores era conducir camiones de gran tonelaje entre las procesadoras y los campos de caña de otros empleadores. Los trabajadores ganaron una tarifa local de trabajador agrícola invitado de $11.88 por hora en 2021, alrededor de un 40% menos que lo que devenga un camionero comparable en la zona, según la demanda. Dado que la mayoría de estos trabajadores agrícolas están exentos de las normas federales sobre horas extras, Sterling también evitó, supuestamente, el pago de horas extras — a pesar de que los trabajadores a menudo conducían hasta 80 horas a la semana.

Si hubiesen tenido visas H-2B en lugar de H-2A, según la demanda, los salarios hubiesen sido mucho más altos.

Sterling no respondió a las solicitudes de comentarios, pero negó haber actuado mal en una respuesta inicial presentada el pasado diciembre en la Corte de Distrito de Estados Unidos en Lafayette. La demanda de los trabajadores, alega la empresa, falsea “las leyes, reglamentos y estatutos” que rigen los programas de trabajadores invitados. Entre otras defensas, alegó que sus “prácticas salariales no violan ni violaron en ningún momento” la Ley de Normas Justas de Trabajo, cuyas disposiciones incluyen los requisitos de pago de horas extras.

Colocar a los trabajadores en la categoría de visa equivocada no es la única forma en que las empresas pueden intentar amañar el sistema de visados. Desde 2010, los funcionarios laborales han confirmado 757 casos en los que los trabajadores H-2B realizaron tareas que deberían haber merecido una remuneración mayor. Los empleadores tuvieron que pagar $880,000 en salarios atrasados.

Para traer trabajadores invitados, las empresas deben demostrar ante la Oficina de Certificación de Fuerza Laboral Extranjera del Departamento del Trabajo que los anuncios que publicaron buscando a empleados no atrajaeron a suficientes estadounidenses. Luego le piden al Departamento de Seguridad Nacional autorización para las visas.  

Independientemente del número de solicitudes de empleo individuales que certifiquen los funcionarios laborales, el Congreso ha limitado las visas H-2B a 66,000 al año. Pero el sistema incluye exenciones y autoriza al Departamento del Trabajo y al de Seguridad Nacional a añadir conjuntamente más visas si están convencidos de que, de lo contrario, las empresas pudieran verse perjudicadas. El año pasado funcionarios laborales certificaron 181,451 empleos H-2B, mucho más del doble del límite. En respuesta, este año se han añadido 20,000 visas H-2B  más para que las utilicen las empresas. Las visas H-2A no tienen límite. Las certificaciones laborales para empleos H-2A se duplicaron con creces desde 2016 y superaron más de 317,600 en 2021. 

Más del 90% de los trabajadores H-2A y el 75% de los H-2B proceden de México. Los programas se hacen eco del antiguo Programa Bracero, un acuerdo de la época de la Segunda Guerra Mundial con México para suministrar trabajadores invitados para cubrir la escasez de mano de obra agrícola en Estados Unidos. Los braceros, un nombre derivado de "brazos", siguieron siendo reclutados hasta que el Congreso le puso fin al programa en 1964 debido a las quejas de malos tratos.

La gestión de las visas, creciente corrupción

Para evitar abusos, personal de los consulados estadounidenses que entrevista a los trabajadores invitados antes de concederles la visa les proporciona información en línea y folletos sobre sus derechos, incluido el derecho a quejarse confidencialmente ante funcionarios laborales.

Entre tanto, los investigadores de asuntos laborales están sometidos a la presión de las empresas para relajar la supervisión. Desde 2016, el lenguaje adjunto al presupuesto del Departamento del Trabajo ha prohibido que la agencia aplique una norma salarial para los trabajadores H-2B que las industrias alegan que es demasiado onerosa. Con algunas excepciones, la norma es que si el trabajo se ralentiza — si el abastecimiento de langostas disminuye, por ejemplo — los trabajadores invitados deben seguir cobrando las tres cuartas partes de las horas de trabajo prometidas en los contratos. 

Para evitar que las empresas utilicen a los trabajadores invitados para reducir los salarios, los funcionarios laborales están facultados para fijar un salario mínimo para estos trabajos superior al local o al vigente. Pero el director legal del Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Benjamin Botts, ex abogado del Departamento de Trabajo, dijo que ha visto a los empleadores evadir las protecciones.  

Un caso que durante un año Botts llevó en Salinas, California, condujo a una orden de pago de $1.1 millones en salarios atrasados y otros daños en 2016 para los trabajadores de la fresa.  Según los funcionarios, fueron mal pagados y extorsionados. Los responsables de Fernandez Farms le dijeron a un grupo de 85 a 90 trabajadores agrícolas con visas temporales que no volverían a conseguir trabajo, según las autoridades, si les revelaban a los investigadores que los jefes cobraban por el alojamiento y se negaban a reembolsar los gastos de visas y de viaje, que en el caso de una mujer sumaban $1,500. 

Un juez administrativo determinó que los supervisores "les dejaron claro a los trabajadores que si revelaban las infracciones, habría repercusiones, y les dijeron que los investigadores no cumplirían ninguna de sus promesas". 

La extorsión es ilegal a ambos lados de la frontera. Pero, como reconoce un informe de la Oficina de Control y Fiscalización del Gobierno (GAO), algunos reclutadores en México han exigido sobornos por reservar empleos para los trabajadores. El soborno se considera una infracción de "transferencia de costos" que merma la compensación económica de los trabajadores. No reembolsar los gastos de los trabajadores en concepto de visas y viajes de ida y vuelta a los puestos de trabajo en Estados Unidos es otra de las violaciones de la transferencia de costos. Los datos del Departamento del Trabajo muestran que los investigadores confirmaron casi 22,000 infracciones por transferencia de costos que dieron lugar al pago de $3.7 millones en salarios atrasados entre 2005 y 2020.

Los investigadores también confirmaron 2,300 infracciones de las normas de alojamiento H-2A que dieron lugar a pagos de $670,000 a los trabajadores.

Defensores dicen que los trabajadores suelen soportar algunos engaños para conservar el dinero que reciben. La presión social también puede ser un factor. 

"Hay comunidades enteras en México que dependen de estos programas", dijo Peña, del Centro de Derechos del Migrante en México. "Si alguien denuncia los abusos, puede significar que los empleadores tomen represalias no sólo contra esos trabajadores que denuncian en particular, sino también contra sus familiares en la comunidad".

Olivia Guzmán y su esposo Fausto García, trabajadores temporales en Luisiana, enfrentaron presiones en México, así como la inclusión en una lista negra de empleos en la industria de la langosta de agua dulce en Estados Unidos, según las quejas que presentaron en 2014 y 2015, respectivamente, ante la Junta Nacional de Relaciones Laborales. Resolvieron sus casos con una indemnización. En un raro reconocimiento del daño sufrido, también se les autorizaron visas U, permisos de residencia en Estados Unidos para víctimas de delitos o testigos que han sido amenazados durante las investigaciones en el país. Cuando Guzmán se reunió con otros trabajadores invitados en México para discutir sus preocupaciones, sufrió intimidación, dijo la abogada Mary Yanik, directora de la Clínica Jurídica de Derechos de los Migrantes de la Universidad de Tulane en Nueva Orleans.

Guzmán y García pertenecen a la Coalición de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores Migrantes Temporales Sinaloenses, con sede en México. Desde Mexico, Guzmán le dijo a Public Integrity que muchas mujeres que procesan langostas se quejaron ante ella por no recibir el pago de horas extras. 

“Se aprovechan de gente con mucha esperanza y deseo de trabajar”, dijo.

'Yo soy el que tiene el poder aquí'

Cerca de Baton Rouge, Luisiana, un caso en curso del Departamento del Trabajo contra una importante granja de caña de azúcar plantea nuevas preocupaciones sobre la intimidación que pueden enfrentar estos trabajadores estacionales o temporales en sus lugares de trabajo en Estados Unidos. Marty Walsh, secretario de trabajo de Biden, ha dicho que el departamento tiene la intención de ser más duro con los empleadores que explotan a los indocumentados. En este caso de Luisiana, los funcionarios reconocen que los trabajadores invitados — aunque estén aquí legalmente — son especialmente vulnerables porque las visas los vinculan a los empleadores.

El pasado mes de septiembre, el departamento demandó a Rivet & Sons, una granja de 6,000 acres de Luisiana, exigiendo protecciones para los trabajadores invitados y el pago de salarios atrasados. Tres trabajadores huyeron de la granja después de que los trabajadores filmaron a Glynn Rivet, en aquel momento copropietario de Rivet & Sons, mientras maldecía, blandía dos pistolas y disparaba cerca de los trabajadores el 8 de junio. El día anterior, Rivet se puso hostil cuando los trabajadores le pidieron más agua potable y les dijo que la sacaran de una zanja, según la demanda del Departamento del Trabajo del 22 de septiembre. 

Las autoridades alegan que el mismo día en que Rivet disparó sus pistolas, trasladó a los trabajadores a un campo y se marchó gritando: "Yo soy el que tiene el poder aquí".

Tras el incidente de la pistola, los trabajadores se pusieron en contacto con la policía y a los pocos días tres de ellos abandonaron la granja, perdiendo así los empleos que esperaban tener desde el 15 de marzo hasta el 15 de enero, según informaron los funcionarios laborales. 

"Como [ellos] eran trabajadores H-2A, sus opciones eran limitadas porque no eran libres de buscar otro empleo en Estados Unidos", escribieron los funcionarios en la demanda. "En resumen, se vieron atrapados con sólo dos opciones: quedarse o irse", y tres trabajadores optaron por irse "para evitar más actos de violencia".

El departamento exige que Rivet & Sons les pague a los trabajadores que huyeron los salarios perdidos, los gastos de viaje y otros gastos debido a la pérdida de sus empleos. Los funcionarios también dijeron que uno de los hijos de Rivet les pidió a los trabajadores que se retractaran de lo que le habían dicho a la policía o enfrentarían la pérdida de trabajo porque la granja podría cerrar.

Glynn Rivet fue arrestado el 11 de junio y acusado de cuatro cargos de agresión con agravantes y uso ilegal de armas. Si completa un programa de desviación previo al juicio, los cargos podrían retirarse. En una presentación judicial del 30 de diciembre, los hijos de Rivet pidieron que se detuviera la demanda del Departamento del Trabajo porque habían apartado a su padre de la propiedad y la gestión de la empresa después del incidente. Los hijos también alegan que los trabajadores que se fueron lo hicieron voluntariamente.

Lo ideal, alegan los defensores, sería que el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional aceptara darles a los trabajadores invitados que huyen de abusos una autorización para estar en el país temporalmente y permisos para buscar otros lugares de trabajo que necesiten mano de obra. Un proyecto de ley en el Congreso les proporcionaría visas U a estos trabajadores, pero no ha avanzado.

El caso de Rivet & Sons no es la primera vez que la granja se ve envuelta en un conflicto laboral. Aunque no es nombrada como acusada, la empresa ocupa un lugar destacado en una demanda colectiva en curso presentada en agosto de 2020 en el Tribunal de Distrito de Estados Unidos para el Distrito Oeste de Arkansas. Empleados con visas H-2A están demandando a Lowry Farms, un contratista laboral de Arkansas, acusándole de engañar a trabajadores que suministró a granjas de Luisiana — incluyendo Rivet & Sons — entre 2016 y 2019. En la demanda no se acusa a Rivet & Sons de haber actuado mal.

Bernabé Antonio Benito, un trabajador de Lowry Farms, afirma en una declaración jurada que trabajó en los campos de caña de azúcar de Rivet en 2018, con unos 40 trabajadores más. Un reclutador en México le dio un documento que garantizaba un salario de 10.73 por hora en dólares estadounidenses, dijo Benito, pero "no fue así". 

"Nunca fue explicado cómo se estaba pagando mi sueldo y los de los otros trabajadores con visa H-2A", dijo, "y tampoco quedó claro si era por acre, por día de trabajo u otra manera. ... La mayoría del tiempo, los talones de cheques no enseñaban la cantidad correcta de las horas que yo había trabajado".

En una presentación judicial, Lowry Farms niega las acusaciones de irregularidades. Gregory Thomas, abogado del negocio y del propietario Michael Clayton Lowry, declinó hacer comentarios. 

Según los registros del Departamento de Trabajo, los funcionarios cerraron un caso en 2015 contra un negocio anterior de Lowry, Clay Lowry Forestry, después de que el negocio les pagara un total de $2,567 en salarios atrasados a 37 trabajadores H-2B y $5,000 en multas. 

"Tenemos que revisar todo este sistema", dijo la abogada de los trabajadores de Lowry, Anne Janet Hernández, del Southern Poverty Law Center, "para asegurarnos de que los individuos puedan venir aquí a trabajar y contribuir a nuestra economía en sus términos y no en términos de explotación". 

Caitlin Berberich, abogada del Southern Migrant Legal Services, coincide. Representa a los 14 camioneros de Sterling Sugars Sales Corporation que alegan que fueron clasificados erróneamente como trabajadores agrícolas H-2A y mal pagados en Luisiana. Los trabajadores H-2A pueden transportar los productos al almacén, pero sólo si también realizan una cantidad considerable de trabajo agrícola real, y sólo si su jefe produce más de la mitad de lo que transportan. Los trabajadores dicen que eso no se cumplió en el caso de ellos.

En México, Maribel Hernández, la empleada de la industria de la langosta a quien le pagaron de menos en Luisiana, tiene una advertencia para los futuros trabajadores temporales que piensan que un permiso para trabajar en Estados Unidos garantiza un salario y un trato justos: “Valoren sus derechos. Fuimos con papeles, y pasamos por tanto dolor.”

Univision tradujo la versión en español de este artículo.

The post Con más trabajadores temporales, crece el temor a un mayor robo de salarios appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

Wage theft remains a common problem among United States Postal Service employees, a panel of experts and a retired USPS employee said in a forum hosted by the Center for Public Integrity Wednesday night. 

“Cheated at Work,” a Public Integrity investigative series by Alexia Fernández Campbell, Joe Yerardi and Susan Ferriss published between May and October, found that U.S employers that illegally underpay workers face few repercussions, even when they do so repeatedly. This widespread practice perpetuates income inequality, hitting lowest-paid workers hardest.

“USPS has cheated mail carriers for years,” Fernández Campbell’s story that was published in late August, found that the Postal Service regularly cheats mail carriers out of their pay. Managers at hundreds of post offices around the country have illegally underpaid hourly workers for years.

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s forum, which was moderated by Public Integrity senior reporter Fernández Campbell and featured Kim Bobo of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Paul M. Falabella of the Butler Curwood law firm and Douglas Lape of the National Association of Letter Carriers, as well as retired USPS employee Steve Burr:

1. Wage theft is an issue of the entire U.S. economy. 

“It doesn’t surprise me that USPS workers have [wage theft problems] because it’s a common problem throughout the country,” Bobo said. 

Unions can help fight this, but there aren’t enough of them in the country, Bobo said. And federal and state law enforcement officials aren’t focused on wage theft laws. 

“If there’s no pressure for this to change, it’s not going to change,” Bobo said. “We have to put pressure on our government officials, … we need to put pressure on these enforcement agencies … and we need to build a coalition, so the unions and the community groups can work together to get some public attention to this.” 

2. More money is stolen each year in wage theft than in property crimes.
A 2017 report by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that “the total wages stolen from workers due to minimum wage violations exceeds $15 billion each year,” per The Guardian. That’s more than the value of stolen goods in all property crimes, according to the latest FBI statistics.

“If you think about common robberies, like property robberies, there are tens of thousands of police officers across the country that investigate these problems,” Bobo said. “But more money is stolen from workers each year than is stolen in property crimes.” 

3. Postal workers can file grievances against USPS for withholding wages. Here’s how:

If you’re a part of a union and believe that you’ve been withheld wages, here’s what Lape says you should do: 

• Get exact numbers: Keep track of how many hours you work each shift and compare that to what it says on your paycheck. For example, note that you were paid for 9 hours when you really worked 10. This will help union representatives know where to begin when taking up your case, Lape said. 
• Speak with your shop steward: Reach out to your local union steward and tell them you want to file a grievance, Lape said. 
• Go to your branch officer: If you feel your grievance is not being addressed, you should talk to your local union branch officer. Preferably, the president of the branch, Lape said. 
• Contact your national business agent: If you don’t get the response you’re looking for, the next step is go to your national business agent, Lape said.

(Note: There are many postal worker unions, and Lape spoke to the inner workings of the NALC.) 

If you’re interested in talking to a lawyer but worry about expensive legal fees, here are some key takeaways from employment attorney Falaballa:

• Check out a law firm with a no-charge intake process. 
• The Fair Labor Standards Act allows for shifting attorneys fees, meaning that the Postal Service will likely pay a worker’s attorney fees if the case is settled or goes to trial. In other words, it’s unlikely that employees will have to pay the attorney that represents them. 
• The Postal Service’s timekeeping records will show if a manager changed an employee’s timecard without the proper paperwork,  Falabella said. “when we get the resources like we described here that show these time deletions, there’s really not any defense to it. its wage theft. It’s a per se violation of the law.”

The post USPS experts offer advice on how to fight wage theft appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

When you’re shopping for gifts this holiday season, keep in mind that some of the outlets selling furniture, electronics and other goods may have a history of failing to pay their workers.

Wage theft occurs in every industry and Public Integrity has reported about many of those this year. In 2019 alone, the U.S. Department of Labor cited about 8,500 employers for not paying $287 million to workers.

A review of Department of Labor data shows that the retail industry had more than 2,900 wage theft cases from 2010 to 2020 — more than three for every 1,000 employees.

Below is a table showing retail companies, their number of wage theft cases and employees affected, and the amount of back wages assessed from 2010 through 2020.

The post See which retail companies didn’t pay their workers appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

Update: Dec. 13, 4:05 p.m.: Douglas Lape has been added as a guest to the panel.

A Center for Public Integrity investigation revealed that U.S. Postal Service workers across the country have been cheated out of their pay. Senior reporter Alexia Fernández Campbell examined private arbitration records and found that from 2010 to 2019, at least 250 managers in 60 post offices were caught changing mail carriers’ time cards, resulting in unpaid wages. Since publishing the investigation, we’ve heard from dozens of postal workers who reached out with their stories of wage theft and to ask questions.

Join us for a live panel with a legal expert, a workers’ rights advocate and a retired postal worker. They will discuss wage and hour violations and what workers can do if they suspect they have been cheated at work. We will also answer questions from postal workers.

Join us on Facebook Live at 8 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Dec. 15.

The Panel

Kim Bobo
Executive Director
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

Bobo founded and served as the executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, the nation’s largest network of people of faith engaging in local and national actions to improve wages, benefits and conditions for workers, especially those in the low-wage economy. As executive director from 1996 to 2015, she helped build interfaith groups and worker centers around the nation. Bobo is now executive director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, a non-partisan advocacy coalition based in Richmond, Virginia. 

Stephen Burr
Retired USPS Clerk 

Burr worked for the USPS for 35 years and retired in February 2021. He started his career as a letter carrier in the Santa Ana division in California. Burr says he pursued a career with the Postal Service for stability. While working at the USPS in Kansas City, Missouri, Burr says he was cheated out of wages he earned and is still fighting to get them back. 

Paul M. Falabella
Attorney 
Butler Curwood 

Falabella is an employment lawyer based in Richmond, Virginia. His legal focuses include employment discrimination, wage and hour law, employment and business torts, and employment contracts. Falabella has been named to Super Lawyers’ Virginia Rising Stars list in the field of employment and labor. 

Douglas Lape
Assistant to the President for City Delivery
National Association of Letter Carriers

Lape has been a postal employee since 1996. He started his career as a clerk and became a letter carrier in 1998. He began his National Association of Letter Carriers career as a shop steward in 1999 and has handled grievances at all steps of the grievance procedure. Lape served as the vice president of Branch 43 in Cincinnati, OH from 2011 until being appointed to his current position in 2017.

Moderated by

Alexia Fernández Campbell
Senior Reporter 
The Center for Public Integrity 

Read Alexia’s latest reporting on wage theft and the USPS 

The post Join us for a live discussion: cheated out of pay at the USPS appeared first on Center for Public Integrity.

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A 43-year-old mailman in rural Texas is dreading the next two weeks. Not because it’s the busiest time of year for the U.S. Postal Service, but because he worries he won’t get paid for all the extra hours he will be working.

He’s been clocking about 12 hours of overtime each week since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 and says his paycheck has been short at least half a dozen times. One, from last year’s holiday season, incorrectly showed him working zero hours, he said.

Other postal workers say they feel just as anxious about getting cheated during the holidays: A mail carrier in Chicago nearing retirement; a mother of three teenagers in upstate New York; a Minnesota father who rarely makes it home in time for dinner.

Roughly two dozen mail carriers in 10 states told the Center for Public Integrity that they plan to work overtime in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and half say they’ve struggled to get paid for all the hours they worked in recent months. Some blame their supervisors for deleting hours worked from their timecards to avoid paying overtime, which is 50% extra under federal law. 

In some cases, carriers say the Postal Service owes them money because it hasn’t updated the time it takes to deliver mail on all rural routes since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a sharp spike in online shopping and a deluge of packages to deliver. Most rural carriers are paid by how many hours it usually takes to deliver their routes, not how long it actually takes. They can also earn overtime by picking up extra routes on their time off. 

Hundreds of managers have been caught illegally changing mail carriers’ timecards to show them working fewer hours than they did, shorting their paychecks, according to a Public Integrity investigation published in August. The news organization obtained a batch of private arbitration award summaries stretching over the last decade. Supervisors were rarely punished for cheating employees. 

“It’s really tough to stay at a place that has such little respect for its people and where you have to fight to get paid for the work you do,” said the Texas mail carrier, who, like other Postal Service employees interviewed for this story, asked Public Integrity to withhold his name out of fear of retaliation from his supervisors. 

A spokesperson for the Postal Service, Darlene Casey, said the agency does not condone improper timecard changes and takes such allegations seriously. 

“This position is messaged to the postal workforce directly from postal leaders, including the Vice President, Delivery Operations, who periodically reissues policies regarding appropriate timecard administration for supervisors,” Casey wrote in a statement to Public Integrity. “Additionally, the Postal Service continues to enhance its time and attendance technologies and processes to provide greater oversight of timekeeping practices and increase employee insight into their own work hours.” 

Yet some managers continue to change employee time cards, even after arbitrators have ordered them to stop, according to dozens of mail carriers and private arbitration documents recently shared with Public Integrity. In San Jose, California, for example, an arbitrator admonished Postal Service managers earlier this year for ignoring her order to stop cheating mail carriers on pay, calling their behavior “deliberate and devious.”

Private arbitration records and personal anecdotes reveal only part of the problem. They don’t include wage theft grievances settled between the agency and the postal unions before reaching arbitration. And they miss all the times that wage theft goes unreported, either because employees are afraid to complain or because they don’t understand the agency’s complex pay rules. 

“People are worked so hard that they don’t have time to rest or eat, let alone check if their timecard or paycheck is accurate,” wrote a mail carrier in Minnesota, who has filed more than two dozen grievances with her local labor union since the start of the pandemic. 

In her case, she said, the agency wasn’t paying the cost of living raise she was due, per the union contract. She said she finally got paid back eight months after filing the first complaint. Like many other mail carriers who reached out to Public Integrity, she said she assumes that the Postal Service will short her during the peak holiday rush.

Arbitrator to Postal Service: ‘Compliance is not optional’

In February, arbitrator Nancy Hutt grew exasperated with the Postal Service after two days of closed-door hearings at a post office in San Jose. A union steward had brought 11 binders with copies of employee time sheets, showing that post office supervisors in Silicon Valley were still changing mail carriers’ timecards to cheat them out of pay. 

About a year-and-a-half earlier, in September 2019, Hutt reviewed evidence that supervisors in all 12 San Jose post offices improperly manipulated employee hours for at least three years and underpaid staff by hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

In a legally binding arbitration award, Hutt ordered Postal Service supervisors to pay back mail carriers and stop changing time cards without their approval. She also ordered all involved managers to get retrained on how to properly use the timekeeping system. 

But the time theft didn’t stop, according to a second arbitration decision she issued in April, which was obtained recently by Public Integrity. 

Jeff Frazee, a union arbitration advocate with the National Association of Letter Carriers, told her he found 4,510 timecard violations in the months following her original decision, according to a summary of Hutt’s findings. Frazee’s binders showed that managers continued to clock out employees while they were delivering mail or change time sheets to show them finishing work before they did. In one case, a manager made it look like an employee took unpaid leave on a day the employee worked a full shift. 

On top of that, a union representative said in the arbitration hearing that the Postal Service couldn’t provide proof that it retrained managers to use the timekeeping system. And mail carriers in seven San Jose post offices accused supervisors of pressuring them to sign paperwork approving years-old timecard changes, despite some of their objections.

A representative for the Post Office told the arbitrator that the agency had complied with the previous arbitration decision and that all the money owed to carriers had been paid by Jan. 8, 2021 – adding up to $571,520.

After two days of testimony, Hutt determined that the Postal Service largely ignored her orders. She described the continued timecard fraud as “intentional, repetitive and egregious.”

“Compliance is not optional,” she wrote in her April decision. “Management has no option to pick and choose.”

Hutt once again ordered supervisors to stop the illegal behavior and to pay back employees. It’s unclear whether the Postal Service has done so.

Casey, the USPS spokesperson, declined to answer questions about the San Jose case.

Ernie Arrañaga, president of the local San Jose mail carriers’ union, did not respond to a request for comment.

Maverick Tran, a former mail carrier who worked in San Jose for seven years, said a Postal Service leader apologized to staff during a stand-up meeting before Tran quit in July.

“She said something like ‘sorry about falsifying clock rings’ and that it shouldn’t happen and that they’re doing their best to keep it from happening again,” Tran recalled, referring to the start and finish entries in the timekeeping system. “But they’ve always been saying that. It didn’t sound sincere.”

Tran said his former bosses often clocked him out before he finished working, and he quit in July because he didn’t want to spend another Christmas season delivering mail late into the night and missing out on family gatherings. He said he’s in touch with some of his former co-workers, who tell him that managers are still changing timecards, just not at the same scale as before. He hopes this holiday season isn’t so rough for them.

“Honestly, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Tran, who now works the assembly line in a medical device factory. “It’s probably going to be hectic.”

The looming holiday test

Last holiday season was certainly hectic. The number of packages mailed through the Postal Service jumped 37% from the previous year’s peak as the pandemic pushed Americans to do their Christmas shopping online. The Postal Service was already understaffed, with high employee turnover, and mail carriers took more sick days than usual as the pandemic spread. Packages piled up at mail processing centers across the country, delaying delivery up to 17 days.

The Postal Service said it’s prepared this time and plans to hire about 40,000 temporary employees through the end of the year — a 33% increase from last year.

The inspector general for the Postal Service — which serves as an independent agency watchdog — suggested that might be hard to pull off.

“While the Postal Service was able to hire its planned number of temporary employees last peak season, it fell short the prior two years,” according to an audit report released in November.

The audit did not mention concerns from current employees about getting paid for the extra hours they’re logging.

“I feel management will make any and all excuses to avoid paying any overtime,” one rural mail carrier in Florida who has worked at the agency for 17 years wrote in response to a survey Public Integrity shared with USPS mail carriers.

A long-time mail carrier in Chicago, who has been working 10 to 20 hours of overtime each week during the pandemic, said the wage theft is still happening.

“They will steal from craft employees by changing their clock rings and finding any number of excuses to say that the overtime wasn’t needed and shouldn’t have been paid,” he wrote in response to the survey.

The mail carrier in Texas, meanwhile, said he expects to get stiffed in the coming weeks. “It’s just a matter of when,” he said.

Last holiday season, he had to take out a $4,000 loan to pay his mortgage and other bills, he said, because one paycheck erroneously showed him working zero hours. He was eventually repaid but said the Postal Service did not reimburse him for the interest he paid on the loan. 

Getting paid back is a process that usually takes four to five months after filing a complaint with the postal union, he said. That doesn’t count the time it takes to fill out the paperwork for each grievance. 

“Who’s going to pay me for those hours?” he asked. “Nobody.” 

He gets his last paycheck of the year on Christmas Eve. 

Public Integrity’s Ashley Clarke and Alex Eichenstein contributed to this report.

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