GOP Wants To Make It Harder For Workers To Win WAGE THEFT Cases in Indiana.

I am still trying to determine if this bit of despicable legislation by the Indiana GOP is an ALEC inspired effort. If it is, look for it to pop up in your statehouse soon.

TROUBLE FOR THE UNPAID WORKER

(posted with permission of the author)

Sometimes they are Hoosiers who fix our roofs or paint our buildings. Sometimes they are Hoosiers who cook our meals and wash our dishes in local restaurants. Sometimes they are Hoosiers who provide in-home care for seniors or persons with disabilities.

They are the victims of wage theft.

The vast majority of Indiana businesses follow the law carefully and faithfully. But a small minority of unscrupulous employers stiff their workers, and cause real harm in the process. Wage theft is devastating for workers and their families, causing loss of homes and limiting access to food and health care.

Wage theft is also toxic for the community. Unpaid workers often need to rely on public assistance, and law-abiding businesses are disadvantaged when competing with cheating employers.

So why would the Indiana General Assembly be considering House Bill 1126, a law that would hurt workers, the community and law-abiding businesses?

In Indiana, we are fortunate that we have a strong wage claim law that our Indiana Department of Labor uses to help many workers pursue the pay they are owed. In the majority of cases where they find wages are owed, the department is able to collect back wages.

When the Department of Labor process does not work for Indiana employees, they must turn to attorneys for help. We represent some of those employees pro bono — for free —in our Health and Human Rights Clinic. Most of our cases are resolved before trial, without attorney’s fees being pursued from employers.

These happy, efficient outcomes usually occur when nonpaying employers learn the penalties under Indiana law. Nonpaying employers can be liable for up to three times the earned wages, plus the reasonable attorney’s fees of the unpaid worker.

These kinds of laws are called “fee-shifting” statutes. They are designed to allow low-income people who have been wronged to obtain a lawyer they could never afford on their own. Needless to say, the unpaid roofer or waitress does not usually have the cash to pay a lawyer’s retainer fee. And our clinic can represent only a fraction of those in need.

But under Indiana’s law, a lawyer in private practice can take on a wage theft case without a fee up front. If the claim is strong enough to prevail, the employer will be ordered to pay the worker’s lawyer.

This Indiana law works. Even cheating employers can see that possible hammer of penalties and lawyer’s fees coming at them, and they usually decide to finally pay what is owed.

But a proposed law under consideration by the Indiana General Assembly could change all that. House Bill 1126, which passed the Indiana House and is under consideration by the Senate, would slash the possible penalties for nonpaying employers, including attorney’s fees, to an amount that cannot exceed double the unpaid wages.

Indianapolis employment law attorney Phil Gibbons says this bill, if passed, would leave most unpaid Indiana workers without access to a lawyer. “Most wage claims I see are in the $300- $1500 range,” he says. “No attorney can afford to litigate a case from complaint through trial knowing that total combined damages and fees cannot exceed double the amount of unpaid wages due.

“Moreover, this law puts attorneys in direct conflict with their clients. HB 1126 not only caps the available recovery, but it combines damages and fees together in calculating the total available recovery. This results in the attorney and client competing against each other for the same money.”

It is difficult to understand the motivation behind changing Indiana’s wage theft law. It does not benefit the vast majority of Hoosier employers who fully and timely pay their employees. It certainly does not benefit hardworking Hoosiers who would have decreased protection from wage theft.

It would only benefit the handful of employers who violate the law by withholding paychecks.

Why would our legislators want to reward them?

Quigley is a clinical professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2014/02/14/trouble-for-the-unpaid-worker/5483801/