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"For thousands of day laborers in Illinois, better protections and
better working conditions mean being able to bring home their
hard-earned money and provide for their families," Blagojevich said.
"By strengthening the Day Labor Services Act we will be able to go
after abusive agencies who cheat day laborers of their wages or
leave them unprotected on the job. Starting Jan. 1, we are also
ensuring that workers are paid no less than the prevailing wage on
public works, leveling the playing field for honest, law-abiding
contractors who follow the rules." The amended Day and Temporary
Labor Services Act, sponsored by state Rep. Cynthia Soto, D-Chicago,
and state Sen. Miguel del Valle, D-Chicago, will protect over
300,000 day laborers across the state by providing the Illinois
Department of Labor with stronger enforcement tools, imposing
stiffer penalties on violators and implementing important
protections for vulnerable day and temporary laborers.
Highlights of the new changes in the Day and Temporary Labor
Services Act include:
- Requiring agencies to provide workers with detailed
employment and wage notices, which can be inspected by the
Illinois Department of Labor.
- Protecting day laborers' paychecks from unreasonable
deductions for meals and equipment.
- Requiring agencies to pay workers for lost time when they
are sent to a job, only to be sent back because the agency sent
too many workers.
- Requiring employers that contract with day or temporary
labor agencies to verify that they are registered with the
Department of Labor or face monetary penalties.
- Requiring agencies to provide proof of workers' compensation
and unemployment insurance.
- Prohibiting agencies from charging workers fees for
transportation between the agency and the job site and requiring
that such transportation meet basic safety standards.
- Prohibiting agencies from retaliating or discriminating
against workers who exercise their rights under the act and
giving workers the right to sue for damages when harmed by
violations.
The new law will also allow the Illinois Department of Labor to
impose a $500 penalty against a day labor agency for each day it is
not registered. For all other violations, the department may fine
first-time violators up to $6,000 and repeat violators up to $2,500
per violation per day. To pay for increased enforcement of the day
and temporary labor industry, the legislation increases agency
registration fees to $1,000 and adds a fee of $250 per branch
office.
"We applaud Governor Blagojevich's determination to improve the
lives of native-born and immigrant workers throughout the state,"
said Jose Oliva, coordinator of the Interfaith Workers' Centers
Network. "This law will help so many people of faith, so many
denominations to receive just treatment as they work had to build
better lives for themselves."
"Illinois is now the most aggressive state in the nation to end
abuses leveled against day laborers by unscrupulous employers," said
Tim Bell, executive director of the Chicago Workers' Collaborative.
"Governor Blagojevich's support of working families has helped the
state protect its most vulnerable workers."
The Prevailing Wage Act amendment, sponsored by state Rep. Larry
McKeon, D-Chicago, and state Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, ensures a
fair wage for all of the state's construction workers and allows for
the Department of Labor to impose stiffer penalties against
contractors who violate the law.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan initiated legislation that
strengthens the Prevailing Wage Act, stating that penalties under
the current law were not severe enough to deter contractors from
repeatedly violating the law. The amended act is designed to prevent
noncompliance by increasing fines against repeat violators,
extending the debarment period -- during which a contractor is
ineligible for a public works contract -- and imposing a monetary
penalty against employers who retaliate against employees for filing
prevailing wage complaints.
Penalties for violations of the prevailing wage law include:
- Increasing penalties for second or subsequent violations
from 20 percent to 50 percent of underpaid wages. It also
requires repeat violators to pay a worker 5 percent of this
penalty, up from 2 percent, for each month that the amount
remains unpaid.
- Increasing debarment to four years for contractors with two
or more serious violations within a five-year period.
- Imposing fines in the amount of $5,000 on employers who
retaliate against workers for reporting a violation. This is in
addition to existing remedies, such as reinstatement and
compensation for lost wages.
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 The Department of Labor reports that it has received on average
1,200 prevailing wage complaints per year over the last three years.
"The Illinois Department of Labor is ready to enforce laws that
have more teeth to help us to protect hardworking men and women in
Illinois from being underpaid," said Art Ludwig, director of the
department. "These laws will also keep illegal temporary agencies
who undercut legitimate businesses in check."
"The prevailing wage law guarantees that the state's construction
workers will receive a fair wage," said Margaret Blackshere,
president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. "It enables the Illinois
Department of Labor and the attorney general's office to enforce the
existing prevailing wage law more effectively and strengthens the
penalties against those contractors who fail to follow the law.
Contractors who treat employees fairly will not be at a disadvantage
but will now be at an advantage."
As protecting workers' rights is one of the governor's top
priorities, he has through executive or legislative action:
- Signed legislation that broadens picketing rights for labor
unions and other workers involved in labor disputes with their
employers, allowing workers to picket, post temporary signs,
park vehicles, and set up tents or other temporary shelter areas
for the picketers on public rights of way.
- Signed legislation that dramatically changes the workers'
compensation system to increase benefits for workers, reduce
costs for businesses and fight fraud. After the governor made
workers' compensation reform a top priority in his 2005 State of
the State address, he convened negotiations over several months
with business and labor leaders and members of the General
Assembly, which resulted in the first major overhaul of the
Illinois workers'
- compensation system in nearly 20 years.
- Expanded health care benefits to working families. Almost
400,000 men, women and children have received health care in
Illinois -- at a time when most states are not providing
increased coverage for the working poor and are taking people
off Medicaid or significantly reducing their benefits.
- Signed the All Kids legislation, to make comprehensive
health insurance available to nearly 250,000 children in
Illinois who do not have health insurance. The new law will
cover more than half of children who come from working and
middle-class families that earn too much to qualify for state
programs like KidCare but not enough to afford private health
insurance.
- Raised the minimum wage to $6.50 an hour, benefiting an
estimated 450,000 Illinois workers. The raise made Illinois one
of a few states in the nation to increase the minimum wage above
the federal level of $5.15 an hour, which hasn't changed since
1997.
- Signed legislation protecting hundreds of thousands of
workers from being stripped of their right to overtime pay by
new federal regulations.
- Signed legislation to protect workers from employer
indoctrination and confinement, making Illinois only the third
state in the nation to enact card check recognition of public
employees. The law provides that if 50 percent or more of
workers sign union authorization cards, union recognition is
automatic.
- Signed legislation to help ensure that women receive equal
pay for equal work. Under Illinois' Equal Pay Act, if a man and
a woman do the same job, they must be paid the same.
- Signed legislation to protect U.S. jobs by requiring
companies bidding for state business to certify whether the
terms of the contract will be performed in the United States and
encouraging state agencies to buy products that are manufactured
in the United States.
- Expanded rights of Illinois workers to join a union. This
directly benefited 50,000 home child care workers, 20,000
personal care assistants and thousands of graduate students and
court reporters.
- Signed legislation to improve the structure and funding of
the Unemployment Trust Fund.
- Signed legislation that requires every contractor providing
equipment, materials or supplies to the state of Illinois to
specify that no foreign-made equipment, materials or supplies be
produced by children under the age of 12. Provides for penalties
for a contractor who knowingly furnishes goods to the state
produced by foreign child labor.
[News release from the governor's
office] |
