What 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 “Workers Protection Unit” (or the Workers Protection Unit) aims to criminally prosecute individuals and entities that put workers’ safety at risk and/or steal their wages.
- According to the district attorney’s office, currently individuals and entities that steal workers’ wages generally face charges of scheme to defraud, a misdemeanor under state law. A recently introduced bill seeks to address this and make it a felony.
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 the Workers Protection Unit) aims to criminally prosecute individuals and entities that put workers’ safety at risk and/or steal their wages.
“At the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, we hold accountable companies and executives who exploit their workers, whether it’s endangering their safety or stealing their wages,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. release. “Unity is our latest move to stand up for hard-working New Yorkers. Time and time again, we see companies take advantage of our most vulnerable populations, including low-income and undocumented New Yorkers, and abuse 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 about $1 billion in lost wages annually, affecting tens of thousands of workers. Now a new fund has $100,000 available for these workers to get some of their money back because currently, even if they take a case to court and win, they still don’t get paid.
“We are committed to not only prosecute but also to recover lost wages,” Bragg said.
The newly revealed unit is an evolution of the construction fraud task force, which will now form part of the Worker Protection Unit.
The unit will allow prosecutors to broaden their focus on additional 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 already been prosecuting wage theft in the construction and real estate development fields.
In addition, the unit will also enforce workplace safety laws, including prosecuting employers who create dangerous work environments by filing reckless and manslaughter charges against them.
The creation of this unit seeks to remedy an issue that currently lacks support when it comes to state law. New York State does not consider wage theft to be property theft, which means that 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 generally face charges of scheme to defraud, a misdemeanor under state law. A recently introduced bill seeks to address this and make it a felony.
