Few Options For Cheated Day Workers

In Survey, Many Say They Are Denied Pay

Day laborers in the District are often cheated out of wages and subjected to unsafe conditions, yet they receive little help from city and federal agencies charged with protecting them, according to a survey of 140 workers released last week.

The study, by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, found that more than 60 percent of city day laborers had not been paid at some point, and about half had been paid less than the promised wage. Nearly 40 percent of the workers surveyed said employers charged them for a ride from the hiring location, and 45 percent said they had been abandoned at a work site and left to find and pay for transportation home.

In addition, almost half of those surveyed said they were made to work without necessary safety equipment, 39 percent had been injured at work and, of those, less than 15 percent received medical compensation from their employers.

"Not only are these employers preying on these vulnerable workers every day, but there is no deterrent. It's a major, major problem," said Laura Varela, director of the committee's Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

An estimated 500 day laborers seek construction jobs and menial labor at informal hiring sites, such as the Home Depot off Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast. About one-third are black homeless men; most of the rest are Latino.

According to the report, both groups face barriers when they try to seek redress through government channels.

For instance, a worker who is not paid can file a claim with the District's wage-hour office. However, researchers said that to enter the agency's building, a worker must show the security guard an identity document, which many day laborers do not have.

"Government-issued identification costs money, and a lot of homeless people cannot afford that," Varela said. "And immigrants often don't have any identification, either."

Latino workers who speak little or no English have difficulty explaining their cases to agency employees who don't speak Spanish. she said. And a homeless worker trying to pursue a case through small-claims court faces the challenge of having an address to receive court documents.

"The government needs to develop the cultural understanding of what is happening within these two communities so they can better protect them," Varela said.

She also called for the establishment of an indoor worker hiring center to connect day laborers with advocates who can help them navigate the system, find work more consistently, protect them from the elements and ease tensions with residents who live near the informal hiring sites.