Last week the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) and Governor Pat Quinn announced a renewed effort to protect workers and reward law abiding companies by fighting worker misclassification, or payroll fraud, through education and enforcement. Payroll fraud occurs when companies intentionally treat their employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, minimum wage, overtime pay, and to avoid having to withhold payroll taxes.  IDES has posted a clear explanation of how to tell whether an individual should be considered an employee or an independent contractor on their website, as well as a link where suspected payroll fraud may be reported.  As stated on their web site:

“Law abiding businesses that properly classify their employees are subsidizing businesses that misclassify and could end up paying higher unemployment insurance contributions, higher workers' compensation premiums, and higher taxes than would be required if all employers followed Illinois law.”

A press release from the Illinois Department of Labor quoted Governor Quinn:  “Hiding a full-time employee as an independent contractor creates an unfair competitive advantage.   Read more » about Illinois Renews Effort to Stamp Out Payroll Fraud

As Pat Kiley recently wrote about in his recent series Construction Craftwork as a Career, construction craftwork has seen a decline in Houston and around the country over the last few decades for multiple reasons.  One huge problem is the deterioration of the employer-employee relationship that's been spurred by the growing problem of misclassifcation of workers as independent subcontractors.  Wage theft by unethical employers also makes it very difficult to attract young people into the skilled trades.

On Construction Citizen's recent trip to Washington, I had a chance to sit down with Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project, to talk about what can realistically be done to fix some of these problems.

“I think any job has the potential to be a good job,” Owens said.   Read more » about Finding Realistic Ways to Rebuild the Middle Class

At Construction Citizen, we’re always looking for examples of communities being made better by creative thinkers in the construction industry.  One program that's been touted as a shining example is called Our House.

During my recent trip to Washington DC, I had a chance to sit down with former Maryland State Senator Chris McCabe.  He’s helping get the word out about Our House and what they do for young men who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.  Many would describe them as “throwaways”, but McCabe says the people who run Our House want nothing more than to help juvenile offenders find their way back to a life of integrity by introducing them to the skilled trades.

Set on a 140 acre farm in Maryland, the 20-year-old program puts these young men in a situation many of them have never experienced: a structured day.  They learn carpentry skills for 8 hours each day.  At night, they attend classes as they prepare to get their GED’s.

“What we’re trying to do is teach them a skill but that’s not the end game,” McCabe said.  “The real   Read more » about Rebuilding Young Lives Through Construction [VIDEO]

As you can imagine, the movement of hundreds of oil field workers and construction equipment into the Shale areas of west and south Texas is causing real pain for construction workers hired to build new hotels and apartments in cities like Midland.

CBS affiliate KOSA Channel 7 in Midland reports on one site where the construction workers were brought in from El Paso to build a new hotel.  As of the time of the report, the workers had not been paid and were forced to live in shipping containers without facilities.  Rudy Vegas, one of the workers, talks about living inside a storage unit:

“This is about it right here for 9 guys.  We have 1 bathroom for 40 people and it's not even a real bathroom, we had to build it.  I came over here to make money, not to dig a hole.”   Read more » about Oil Boom Causing Growing Pains

A Houston construction worker was threatened at gunpoint by his employer last Friday because he simply asked to be paid wages he was owed, faith leaders told Construction Citizen.

Lucas Oscar Suazo was one of about 30 men doing a demolition project in downtown Houston for Full Service Construction Inc. over the last few months, and it appears that not only were they all being misclassified as contractors, they were also being paid less than minimum wage.

Suazo is owed $1929.66 for six weeks worth of work.  Even though he’s been doing some of the hardest labor a person can do in the hot Texas sun, the 24-year-old construction worker had to borrow money to stay afloat   Read more » about Worker: “Employer Threatened Me With a Gun When I Asked to be Paid”

The following was originally published in the September issues of Construction News, a monthly industry periodical in the four major metropolitan areas of Texas. It was written by Stan Marek, CEO of the Marek Family of Companies in Houston.  As stated in Construction News, “Like a number of others, his company struggles to find work despite a strong Texas economy.  He believes that a broken immigration system that is fueling unscrupulous business practices in the construction industry is at least one of the culprits.”

Texas has always carried the distinction of being one of the best places to do business in the entire USA.  That’s great for those of us here but even better for those commercial contractors who want to come here.  The fact that we have, within our borders, several hundred thousand undocumented workers bodes well for many contractors who want to come into the state and have an instant, but not necessarily legal, labor force. Read more » about Stick to a Legal, Ethical Approach

An update of the 2010 report on wage theft in the 50 states was released by the Progressive States Network is entitled Where Theft is Legal: Mapping Wage Theft Laws in the 50 States.  It was written by Tim Judson and Cristina Francisco-McGuire under the Progressive States Network with funding from the Ford Foundation and the Public Welfare Foundation.

Building on a series of previous studies that highlighted the current state of wage theft and misclassification throughout the United States, the report asserts that those studies show “states’ wage theft laws are grossly inadequate, contributing to a rising trend in workplace violations that affects millions of people throughout the country.”

The report points out that the enforcement mechanisms, even in states where there are laws, are also inadequate to the scope of the problem and that layoffs in response to economic pressures have crippled the needed enforcement.   Read more » about Wage Theft and Misclassification Report

A specialty contractor has come to the rescue of a homeowner in McAllen, Texas who had been cheated by the first contractor she had hired to repair her damaged shingle roof.  Yvonne Vacca had originally hired Ponce General Contractors to repair damage caused by hail last March.  The company cashed her check but did not return to complete the repairs to her home.

Hannah Linn of Action 4 News / KGBT Television serving the Rio Grande Valley reported this story yesterday about one of the “good guys” – a contracting company who heard about Mrs. Vacca’s plight and decided to repair her roof for free.   Read more » about Compassionate Contractor Helps Homeowner in Need [VIDEO]

The following information was provided by Workers Defense Project (WDP), an Austin-based advocacy group for low-income workers.

This evening a vigil will be held for José Lainez, a construction worker who died while building bridges between Highway 183 and Highway 290 on June 15th 2012.  His family claims the cause of death was heat exhaustion.  The vigil will take place outside of El Shaddai church, located across from the construction site where José worked.  José is survived by his five children, two of which live in Austin: Alex and José Jr.  He was 54 years old.

José Lainez spent the last twelve years as a construction worker in Austin, sending most of his money home to his family in Honduras so that they could repair their home.  According to his family, José was in very good health, but the heat, lack of rest breaks and lack of water at the job site led to his death.  Workers Defense Project has filed numerous complaints against the company for repeated worker safety violations.   Guadalupe Torres knew Don José and worked alongside him at the site where the accident occurred.   Read more » about WDP Holds Vigil for Deceased Construction Worker

After I posted my thoughts on blue collar workers, this is one of the comments I received on Scott Braddock: A Voice for Texas from a reader:

“It is not just the academic types who devalue blue collar labor but corporate number crunchers who assume one set of hands is as good as another when it comes to these sorts of jobs and work to literally devalue the job by paying less, ignoring safety and job conditions and assuming there will always be fresh bodies to fill the position.  Problem is that when management develops that level of disdain for workers, Read more » about Construction Industry “Bandits” Are Tearing at Our Nation’s Fabric [VIDEO]