WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—A federal court in from Westchester County has awarded about $373,000 to three day laborers cheated out of pay by a construction contractor. “This case stands out for the magnitude of the wages that were stolen from these workers,” Robert McCreanor, legal director for the Worker Justice Center of New York and lead attorney on the case, told WAMC radio May 17. The three men, immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico, had worked for general contractor TDL Restoration for three years, he said, and were cheated almost daily, by not getting paid for hours of work they had to do before and after their shifts technically ended. “This was a way of business for the company,” McCreanor said. “What brought this to our attention is that the workers were also paid with checks that bounced, and that happened many times.” The case went to trial after the workers rejected the company’s offer to pay them $125,000 over five years. Esmeralda Hoscoy, regional director of Catholic Charities Community Services, said the payment was the largest sum won out of the more than 200 wage-theft claims the organization has received since 2011. Read more
