Today, the legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee expressed support for a bill that intends to double the number of Wage and Workplace Management Division’s (WWMD) wage investigators at the Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL). Inadequate staffing has posed a significant issue for CTDOL, which has come under fire in recent years for its ever growing backlog of wage complaints.
The WWMD is tasked with enforcing the labor laws of the state, and investigates labor infractions such as wage complaints, lost wage cases, and instances of employee misclassification. In 2015, WWMD had a staff of 29 investigators, there are now 21, and the investigations caseload increases year over year. If passed, this year’s bill would require CTDOL to employ no fewer than 22 investigators by the end of this year, and no fewer than 45 investigators by the end of next year.
While there have been several attempts in the past to increase the number of WWMD staff, the most recent being last year, none have succeeded thus far, and the backlog of cases continues to grow.
“This is a bill we took up in the past and just ran out of time in the session,” said Commission Co-Chair Sen. Julie Kushner (D- Danbury). “I do think there was bipartisan support for it.”
The bill received not only bipartisan support from committee members, but support via written testimony from multiple organizations, such as CT AFL-CIO, Connecticut’s Voices for Children, the Connecticut Worker Center, and various other labor unions and advocacy groups. One such group was the Foundation for Fair Contracting of Connecticut, a non-profit that advocates for labor law compliance in public works projects, headed by Kimberly Glassman.
“We see firsthand just how understaffed and overworked these investigators are. We really need the legislature to give this agency some relief,” said Kimberly Glassman, Director of the FFFC, who testified in-person.
Through her work at FFFC, Glassman has interacted frequently with CTDOL’s WWSD investigators, some of whom she said “are working nights and weekends to try to calculate back wages, calculate restitution, and civil penalties.” Glassman stressed that cases often require investigators to “go through hundreds or thousands of pages of documents.” In her written testimony, Glassman noted that the WWSD currently has approximately 1,600 open cases, with approximately 945 cases, or 59% of the total caseload, awaiting assignment.
“We think this is a long overdue, common sense proposal,” said Glassman.
Miguel Fuentes, a representative of the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC), also testified in support of the bill. Fuentes said he’s worked as a representative for NASRCC for 29 years, and that he’s noticed issues especially regarding the use of out of state contractors.
“In the last year, I found in the state of Connecticut a number of cases where we’ve had multiple out of state contractors, out of New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, come into the state of Connecticut to do business, which is great, up until the time when they come in and bring practices that are not allowed in the construction industry to the state of Connecticut,” said Fuentes.
Fuentes highlighted the case of ITO Construction, in which three Florida-based owners were charged and arrested in Rocky Hill, Connecticut after failing to provide employees with workers’ compensation and misrepresenting their employees as independent contractors. He then listed off several other examples of multimillion dollar projects run by out of state companies working in Connecticut that have been mired in labor infractions, such as a $60 million dollar redevelopment in Rocky Hill that was hit with 12 stop work orders, and a $110 million project in Newington issued 10 stop work orders.
“Had we had more investigators, we could be out there, policing the industry, cleaning it up and creating a level playing field,” said Fuentes. “That’s why I think we need additional help for the folks at DOL.”
Several workers who have filed complaints with CTDOL themselves submitted written testimony in support of the bill. One construction worker, who submitted their testimony anonymously, said they have been waiting over six months for their lost wage case to be completed, and have received no restitution. Another, Ivan Antonio Abarca, said his employer was made to pay fines in his lost wage case, but was not made to pay him back. He has since taken it to court, where it was ruled he should be paid $35 a week in restitution, but hasn’t received a dime.
“I know many workers who suffer from wage theft and do not believe in the system because they see that cases like mine are not solved,” said Abarca. “I believe that if the labor department had more investigators, they could handle each case with more dedication and more effectiveness.”
Ultimately, the Committee showed bipartisan support for the bill. Sen. Rob Sampson (R-Cheshire) called it a “good bipartisan bill,” Rep Steve Weir (R-Andover) said he hopes the bill would move past the committee this year, and Kushner called it “something we absolutely need to do.”
Ultimately, for the bill to be passed, it will need to be passed out of the committee, referred to any other relevant committees, and then passed on both the House and Senate floors. Rep. Tim Ackert (R-Columbia), who serves on the Appropriations Committee, also testified in support of the bill, which is significant, as last year’s version of the bill died after getting passed to Appropriations.
“I’m actually very pleased, Representative [Ackert], that you’re on the Appropriations Committee now, because I do believe that’s kind of where our hang up has been in the past,” said Sampson. “So I’m going to count on you to to make a case over there, to to the chairs and ranking members of appropriations, which I’m sure you’ll do a great job at, to get this thing over the finish line.”
Was this article helpful?
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
