More lawmakers tackle rise of wage-theft complaints

— -- Agustin Gonzalez became a casualty of the real-estate bust in 2007 when he lost his construction job in the Florida Keys.

Since then, he says, he has become another kind of casualty: a victim of wage theft.

Gonzalez now works as a day laborer in the Miami area, waiting on street corners or in front of Home Depot for pickup jobs. He says he has been cheated of pay three times, including twice this year on landscaping and construction jobs that cost him at least $2,600.

"I feel like a slave," says Gonzalez, 38, who entered the USA from Panama in 2006 on a work visa that has expired. "I feel like day laborers are just here to be used without respect."

As the economy falters, lawmakers are taking action on the increase of wage-theft complaints.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas plans to propose an ordinance cracking down on wage theft next month. The legislation, yet to be drafted, may impose fines or other penalties, she says.

At South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice, at least 20 people report wage theft each week, three times as many as a year ago, director Jeanette Smith says. She says that an ordinance would help.

"You don't have people work like slaves and pay them when you want to just because there's a bad economy," Seijas says.

A June report by the Government Accountability Office criticized the Labor Department's enforcement of wage-theft complaints, calling its investigations "ineffective" and "often delayed by months or years."

In response, Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, co-authored a bill last month that would freeze the statute of limitations on wage-theft claims during investigations, giving workers time to pursue options such as lawsuits.

"If the government screws up ... the worker should be able to pursue a separate action," Miller says.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a news release that the department is hiring 250 more investigators — it had 731 in September of last year — to "refocus the agency on these enforcement responsibilities."