Your action is needed to help worker Jorge Panuco recover his stolen wages. Mr. Panuco worked as a waiter at El Patron Restaurant in Southaven for more than a year. He never received any pay besides his customers' tips.
The restaurant owes him $16,150 in unpaid minimum wages and overtime. That's an enormous amount of wages to have stolen from just one worker! Wage theft in restaurants is all too common. Investigations by the U.S Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division of restaurants in eleven cities found that between 30 - 78 percent of restaurants in each city were breaking wage and hour laws.
The owner of the restaurant has not responded to WIN's attempts to negotiate. It's now time to alert El Patron's customers about wage theft at the restaurant. Please join us:
Picket at El Patron Restaurant
Friday, February 19th
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
920 Main St., Southaven, MS
We will be passing out leaflets to El Patron customers alerting them to wage theft at the restaurant. The last time we passed out leaflets at a restaurant about wage theft, the worker was paid on the spot! Even if you cannot stay the whole time, please stop by for a half hour to help.
Let us know if you can join us!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Wage Theft is a Crime: Sign the Petition
Each year, thousands of workers in Shelby County, and millions of workers across the country, are victims of wage theft. Too many employers break the law by not paying workers for hours, days, or even weeks' worth of labor that they've already performed.
It's time to bring the crime of wage theft out of the shadows and into the light of day. A hard day's work should equal a fair day's pay.
That's why Workers Interfaith Network is pressing Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell and District Attorney Bill Gibbons to do their part to stop wage theft. Right now, if workers don't get paid, in most cases all they can do is file a complaint with a government agency, or pay a lawyer to represent them in court. This process can take months or even years, and most workers who experience wage theft don't have money for a lawyer.
But Sheriff Luttrell and Attorney Gibbons can help stop this problem. They can use an existing state law, the Tennessee Theft of Services Act, to recognize wage theft as a crime. This would mean workers could file criminal charges against employers who refuse to pay them for their work.
WIN has presented a proposal to the Sheriff's Department, which they expressed interest in. However, we have not been able to obtain a second meeting to move forward on the proposal. You can push Sheriff Luttrell and Attorney Gibbons to act on this important matter by signing our online petition to them at http://www.change.org/actions/view/wage_theft_is_a_crime_stop_wage_theft_in_shelby_county
If you're not signed up for WIN's email list yet, do it today. You'll get updates and action alerts on the wage theft is a crime campaign. Plus, this month all new email subscriptions are being entered into a drawing for a free $20 gift card to powells.com, an excellent worker-friendly book store. Sign up for email alerts at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm
It's time to bring the crime of wage theft out of the shadows and into the light of day. A hard day's work should equal a fair day's pay.
That's why Workers Interfaith Network is pressing Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell and District Attorney Bill Gibbons to do their part to stop wage theft. Right now, if workers don't get paid, in most cases all they can do is file a complaint with a government agency, or pay a lawyer to represent them in court. This process can take months or even years, and most workers who experience wage theft don't have money for a lawyer.
But Sheriff Luttrell and Attorney Gibbons can help stop this problem. They can use an existing state law, the Tennessee Theft of Services Act, to recognize wage theft as a crime. This would mean workers could file criminal charges against employers who refuse to pay them for their work.
WIN has presented a proposal to the Sheriff's Department, which they expressed interest in. However, we have not been able to obtain a second meeting to move forward on the proposal. You can push Sheriff Luttrell and Attorney Gibbons to act on this important matter by signing our online petition to them at http://www.change.org/actions/view/wage_theft_is_a_crime_stop_wage_theft_in_shelby_county
If you're not signed up for WIN's email list yet, do it today. You'll get updates and action alerts on the wage theft is a crime campaign. Plus, this month all new email subscriptions are being entered into a drawing for a free $20 gift card to powells.com, an excellent worker-friendly book store. Sign up for email alerts at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm
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