Around the country there are a number of irresponsible owners and contractors who are being found out for the fact that they are using cash workers who should be paid as employees. Some of these cash workers have false social security cards or other false identification, many are without safety training, and many have no crafts skills.
Some workers who have been cheated out of wages and overtime for which they were legally due are now filing wage theft lawsuits. However, some workers are undocumented and they cannot protest for fear that the contractor will inform on them and ICE will pay a visit to their home to remove them or members of their families who are undocumented. Fearing that they or someone they know could be sent out of the country, they do not object when told to “Take it or leave it”.
We are looking for those irresponsible contractors and owners who might be operating this way so that Construction Citizen can make an example of them. One way to spot the jobsites where workers are being hired for cash and being paid by the sheet or by the foot is to drive around on Sundays to look at jobsites where there are workers on the job on what, for most folks in the industry, is a day of rest.
Look around. If you spot someone who is not playing by the rules, take a picture and point them out to us so that we may expose them to the rest of our readers as companies that you might not want to work for or hire to do your work. Alternatively, we also want to highlight companies who are upholding the principles which advance an improved industry for all of us.
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