Consulate Affirms Employee Protections for “Labor Rights Week”
Immigrant workers with tenable legal status are disproportionately in danger of being the targets of labor rights violations including wage theft, unsafe conditions and discrimination.
The numbers bear that out.
In 1999, workplace fatalities began falling for all workers except for Hispanics, which accounted for 12 percent of workplace deaths.
Of the workers fired for having a false social security number, a quarter said they were fired because they complained about work conditions. About a fifth were fired for trying to organize a union about their work.
One in three workers employed today makes less than double the minimum wage, but two out of three undocumented workers make under twice the minimum hourly wage.
“You as a worker in this country — even though it’s not your country (of origin) — you as a worker have rights,” Ivette Compean, a staffer with the Mexican Consulate’s Department of Protection, told an audience at the Kansas City, Kan., YMCA.
Throughout the week, Compean and the rest of the Mexican consulate have been spreading the word about their work to affirm workers’ rights. The meeting on Tuesday night covered the Consulate’s partnerships with governmental agencies including the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
But Compean said the biggest component to her outreach was making sure workers know they have an ally in the Consulate.
“This is the message, don’t be scared,” she said. “The thing is that everyone needs to not be scared.”
The Mexican Consulate recently aided the Department of Labor in securing a judgement against J&J Snack Foods Corp. related to $2.1 million in withheld wages to a group of 677 temporary workers. Overtime wages were withheld from a group of workers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that includes Hispanics and Mexican nationals.
SIDEBAR: Do you think you have been discriminated on the job or have been the target of wage theft? Contact the Mexican Consulate at 816-556-0800. Consultations are given regardless of legal status and to all Hispanics, not just Mexicans. Services are free.
Ivette Compean addressing the audience.
