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Immigrants often go unpaid
Deportation fears keep them quiet

Jim Walsh jim.walsh@arizonarepublic.com
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 23, 2006 12:00 AM

Angel Alva said he worked a construction job for 15 days after an employer promised to pay him $15 an hour, but was paid $3 an hour instead.

Afraid of deportation, Alva, 46, and other undocumented workers like him rarely complain about such rip-offs, making them easy prey for unscrupulous employers.

But they said they plan to secretly start writing down the license plate numbers of employers as part of a crackdown on worker abuse launched this week by the Mesa Association of Hispanic Citizens.

"This is not about being legal or illegal," said Rev. Henry Castillo Jr., senior pastor of Centro Palabra De Gracia in Mesa. "This is a crime against humanity. We wouldn't tolerate this if it were a White man or a Black man."

Phil Austin, the association president said, "I think everyone will agree - including Russell Pearce - that individuals should be paid for their work."

Austin was alluding to state Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, a leading advocate of cracking down on illegal immigration.

Austin quoted from aNational Day Labor study, released in January by the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty , that found 49 percent of day laborers are not paid for work performed, 48 percent are underpaid and 27 percent were abandoned.

"It's un-American. It's contrary of what this country was built on," he said.


'Best alternative'


In announcing the program Tuesday, Austin described it as the "best alternative" to Mesa establishing a day labor center to reduce the throng of hundreds of workers who inundate Mesa Drive and Broadway Road each morning.

He said cities with day labor centers often have fewer problems with wage theft because workers and employers must register daily.

The city's Day Labor Operation Study in 2001 recommended Mesa open a day labor center, but the effort died because it lacked City Council support.


Threat of action


The association said it hopes that cheating employers will start treating undocumented workers fairly under the threat of action by a team of three attorneys who have volunteered to help victims.

The attorneys would write demand letters to employers, seeking payment and file civil suits if there is no settlement.

Volunteers with Latino Community Services and other agencies also would help victims fill out state Labor Department forms to file complaints.

Orlando Macias, director of the state Labor Department, said his division processes about 3,100 claims a year. Macias said the average claim takes four months to settle, but some are settled quickly when employers are confronted.

Macias said his department does not check whether workers are citizens because Arizona law does not require it.

"I'm not sure how widespread it is," he said, when asked about the rip-offs of undocumented workers. "We just take wage claims when someone is not paid."

At one time, labor officials required the names and addresses of employers to investigate, but have been accepting license plates as minimal information on complaints for at least two years, Macias said.

Austin also urged criminal prosecution of employers under the state theft of services law. Chronic offenders would be reported to police.

Although police in Phoenix, Denver and Kansas City, Mo. all have policies to treat wage theft as theft of services, Mesa has no such policy.

Mesa police spokesman Sgt. Chuck Trapani said his department probably would treat relatively small wage disputes as civil matters and ethnicity has no bearing on the policy.


Policy not changed


Austin said he has not sought a change in Mesa police policy because the department is working under acting Chief Greg Fowler while searching for a permanent chief.

The attorney said he briefed City Manager Chris Brady on the problem at a breakfast Tuesday and his group will watch carefully to see how police treat complaints involving chronic offenders.

Speaking through an interpreter, a group of undocumented immigrants interviewed behind a convenience store this week said wage rip-offs are commonplace.

During the interview, some men anxious for work jumped into the back of a large pickup that pulled into the parking lot.

They said sometimes employers have them work for a day and promise to pay them after future days on the job, but never pick them up again. They suspect those employers simply pick up more undocumented workers elsewhere." There's more times that they go to work and they are paid, but they are paid less than promised," the interpreter said.


Workers take steps


Gerardo Ramirez, 47, a concrete worker, said through the interpreter that he didn't know he had any rights to fair pay and would start quietly writing down license plate numbers when employers weren't watching.

Macias said workers should document their employment as much as possible, even if it's only a verbal contract, by keeping track of dates and times on a calendar.

"One of the fears they have is what if the owner of the house accuses them of stealing in retaliation for reporting that they weren't paid," the translator said.

Austin said he couldn't guarantee that workers won't be deported if they report abuse and that everything in life carries risks. The association plans to circulate a pamphlet on how to use the program either late this week or early next week, he said.

Workers who think they may have been ripped off can call Latino Community Services, (480) 655-1571.