The Need for Wage Theft and Worker Misclassification Preventative Legislation

A couple weeks ago, TexasGOPVote blogger, Bob Price, discussed the lack of leadership in this past Texas Legislative Session in the area of wage theft and worker misclassification:

"There were many successes in this legislative session, but one of these successes illustrates an area where, as Republicans, we failed to provide crucial leadership in the protection of employee rights and fair business practices. As we are supposed to be the champions of capitalism and lawful commerce we failed to step forward on the issue of reigning in unscrupulous businesses who abuse workers through wage theft and employee misclassification and cheat us all in the process."

In and interview discusses on ConstructionCitizen.com, Houston business owner Lowell Daniel, who offers contracting services in irrigation, drainage, and landscaping, discusses some of the horror stories he has heard from some of his workers regarding wage theft and mistreatment by contractors.

"…This was not for a few days of work. This was a week or two of work. And this is serious labor. This is going underneath houses, leveling, roofing, any type of aspect of construction that you care to imagine, thats what these men performed at a fee much less than what most of the people would required…If you are taking something from someone who has performed a valuable service for you, that you promised to pay them for, that’s stealing.”

Lets hope that the next Texas Legislature will pass a law protecting workers from mistreatment and wage theft.