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Group: Immigrant Workers Vulnerable To Cheating Employers
Coalition Pushes For Improvement

POSTED: 3:35 pm EST January 8, 2007
UPDATED: 7:47 pm EST January 8, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Immigrant workers are vulnerable to cheating employers who pay wages with bad checks or don't pay overtime and Maryland state government should do more about it, a coalition of immigrant groups said Monday.

Groups, including CASA of Maryland, called on incoming Gov. Martin O'Malley to increase the staff at the state Employment Standards Division, up from its proposed six. CASA Director Gustavo Torres said that all low-wage workers are susceptible to unscrupulous employers who cheat them on overtime, or pay less than promised. But he said immigrants are particularly vulnerable.

"People believe that they don't speak English or know their rights," Torres said.

Lizandro Lopez said he worked as a carpenter for a construction company framing houses in Laurel, Md. The developer Lopez was working for builds house in Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, News4 reported. Lopez said that in November he was given a check for $1,120.

"When they paid me with the check I went to exchange and there weren't funds in the account," Lopez said through an interpreter.

Sergio Delgado said he also worked for the company.

"I did not have money to pay for food. I had to get loans from friends," he said.

A report prepared by CASA shows that almost 60 percent of the day laborers they surveyed have been victims of wage theft.

Carl Johnson said speaking English did not help him when it came time to get paid by a temp agency for working at Baltimore Orioles baseball games at Camden Yard.

"My job was to clean the hallways and the bathrooms and, also, row by row I had to clean up the seats, pick up trash," he said.

Johnson said he worked for a month and never received any pay.

CASA officals said 75 percent of the domestic workers they surveyed are underpaid.

"They're being denied overtime. They're being paid $200, sometimes many working more than 12 hours a day," said Alexis Simone of the Domestic Worker Association.

CASA lawyer Jessica Salsbury said New York has a staff of 125 to investigate cheating employers. Salsbury wasn't sure how many Maryland would need, but she said Maryland needs more than it has now because currently low-wage workers have to go to court to recoup lost wages.

"We believe the state can be doing more to investigate these claims," Salsbury said.

Lawmakers return to Annapolis Wednesday. O'Malley takes office Jan. 17.