{"id":724,"date":"2016-06-27T09:30:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T13:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/ejc\/?p=724"},"modified":"2021-11-23T19:09:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T19:09:15","slug":"cracking-wage-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2016\/06\/27\/cracking-wage-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracking down on wage theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a large company contracts out jobs to smaller ones, who then hire workers as \u201cindependent contractors,\u201d is\u00a0the large company liable when the workers aren\u2019t paid what they\u2019re owed? It\u2019s a tricky question that depends partly on how much control the large company exerts over what the workers do. It’s also\u00a0an issue that’s leading to major litigation, including a recent\u00a0lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0by New York State against Domino\u2019s Pizza (which allegedly encouraged its franchisees to use payroll software that undercounted workers\u2019 hours), and a $240 million\u00a0<\/em>settlement<\/a>\u00a0by Fed Ex in a nationwide class action on behalf of 12,000 underpaid drivers.<\/p>\n

This spring, three Sheller Center students \u2013 Crystal Felix, Paige Joki and Daniella Lees — confronted a local version of the problem. Working with attorney Marielle Macher of the Community Justice Project<\/a>, the students filed suit in federal court against a company that initially argued that it had no responsibility for\u00a0wage theft by its subcontractors.<\/p>\n

Ms. Felix notes\u00a0that \u201cseeing how prevalent wage theft is in Philadelphia is just mind-blowing.\u201d And so, besides handling the case,\u00a0she worked with Community Legal Services<\/a> on the implementation of Philly’s recently-enacted wage theft ordinance<\/a>. \u00a0More on that soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a large company contracts out jobs to smaller ones, who then hire workers as \u201cindependent contractors,\u201d is\u00a0the large company liable when the workers aren\u2019t paid what they\u2019re owed? It\u2019s a tricky question that depends partly on how much control the large company exerts over what the workers do. It’s also\u00a0an issue that’s leading to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21,23],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-rights-of-low-wage-workers","tag-social-justice-lawyering-clinic"],"yoast_head":"\nCracking down on wage theft - Elder Justice Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2016\/06\/27\/cracking-wage-theft\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cracking down on wage theft - Elder Justice Consortium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When a large company contracts out jobs to smaller ones, who then hire workers as \u201cindependent contractors,\u201d is\u00a0the large company liable when the workers aren\u2019t paid what they\u2019re owed? 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