March 29, 2006

Advice for a construction worker

This is not about renovation, this is not about real estate, but I think I can find compassion and support on this forum.
May be I just need to be pointed to the right direction. Any advise is really appreciated.
Actually it is related to the construction business, so, it is not totally out of context.

A friend of mine is a recent immigrant. Last month he was hired as a worker by one of the Brooklyn companies who is a supplier of cast stone and plaster products. Since the first day he asked to put him on payroll. They just promised.
Every day he gave a time sheet to the owner and he was paid twice fro two weeks by personal check. Both times payment was delayed by several days. Initial oral agreement was $21/h, but they did not give him any papers to sign.
Owner explained him that paycheck amount is based on $16/h because of the taxes.

He worked as an operator of some sort of equipment, may be a forklift, I am not sure. But he told me that this thing did not have a half of the functions working, you can not open windows and you can not close the doors. He said that when he had to move this car from location to location, he literally had to tie the door to his leg by some sort of rope, because he did not want this door to hit somebody on the street. Also he mentioned that other workers had complained that some hydraulic liquid(?) and oil was dripping on them from this monster.
He was complaining to the owner that this thing should be fixed. An owner mentioned as the reason not to fix this equipment that either registration or insurance (my friend does not remember exactly what it was) is expired.

So, my friend was working till the last week. He missed one check because he had a cold for a couple of days. Then he went straight back to work expecting that he will get one check for two weeks ( by his calculation it is supposed to be over 2K, sometimes he worked for 10-12 hours straight).
Last week he got into minor accident while driving this car. An owner was sitting next to him. Accident was really minor, they got stuck under the bridge with a damage to some pipe that sits high. Police came to check on them and left.
Next day a friend of mine brought his time sheet and asked when he will be paid. And owner responded that it will cost him over 9K to fix the car and that he is not going to pay him and it is my friend who owes him money.
End of the story.

My friend does not speak English well, but an owner is Polish, so they understood each other. Obviously, my friend could not afford a lawyer and I doubt that any lawyer could find this case worth his time. I think that something is really wrong in this situation. But we do not know where to start.
My friend just wants to get his wages and move on. I, personally, would love to see this owner punished. He did not want to talk on the phone, he yells and he is sure that this guy just swallow and move on. To let people to work on broken equipment without insurance and safety instruction, to delay pay and make people to ask for it more then one time - it is plain wrong. I am an emigrant by myself, but I think I exist in an different world. I was skilled professional sponsored for a green card with a normal payroll, normal working conditions and my pay was always higher then an average in USA for my occupation.
So, I do not have an experience to deal with this situation but I want to help my friend. I have checked NY DOL website but I did not find anything useful so far.

Posted by anon at 11:13 PM | Comments (4)

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