ABC will be participating in the first meeting of a new Working Group on Wage Theft Legislation this week. The group will be led by State Representative Josh Cutler, House Labor and Workforce Committee Chairman. It will include construction and business representative as well as unions and community groups that are advocating for the legislation.
ABC is part of a board construction and business coalition that opposes the current version of wage theft legislation as being unfair to the state’s businesses, the vast majority of which do not commit wage theft. The legislation proposes joint and several liability that seeks to hold businesses liable for any wage law violations committed by businesses they hire.
In a message to those participating in the new working group, Rep. Cutler said, “While there may not be agreement on the specific solutions, I was heartened to see a consensus on the broader issue. Clearly all employees and employers of good faith win when there is a clear set of rules that prevents bad actors from taking advantage”
Testimony submitted by ABC and the business coalition at a June 8 hearing on the wage theft legislation noted that some progress was made in a prior working group. “The Wage Theft Working Group allowed representatives from our coalition to work with the proponents of the wage theft bills along with the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development and Committee staff. The collegial atmosphere allowed the working group to try to develop a compromise wage theft bill. While no consensus was reached, some of proposals put forth by the business coalition as alternatives to joint and several liability were included in redrafted legislation.”