Between 2017 and 2020, Baja Concrete and Newway Forming hired more than 40 workers and proceeded to steal millions of dollars from them, according to court records. Workers would be paid for only 40 hours when they were working many hours of overtime, they would not be allowed to take sick leave, and supervisors would threaten to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if workers tried to fight back or assert their rights.
Fortunately, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards (OLS) was alerted to this case and discovered numerous violations.
Unfortunately, since OLS referred the case to the City Attorney’s Office the case has been bogged down in years of litigation as the contractor and the subcontractor pointed fingers at each other and tried to shift the blame while the workers were left out in the cold, not receiving more than two million dollars in compensation for work they completed years ago.
What would this look like if the Seattle City Attorney was more aggressively enforcing worker protections? The City Attorney has the authority to file nuisance lawsuits against businesses that continually thwart City of Seattle ordinances.
As an example, the City filed a nuisance claim and obtained an injunction against a strip club that was operating in violation of zoning laws in late 2010. Nuisance claims have been filed against employers who harm their workers in other jurisdictions.
A nuisance suit paired with an order enjoining a company from continuing to violate Seattle ordinances could bring the really bad actors into line with Seattle worker protections much more quickly than the arduous hearing examiner process.
Stepping back a moment from aggressive enforcement of Seattle’s labor standards laws and reviewing the record of our current city attorney under traditional enforcement mechanisms, raises other concerns. Under the previous city attorney, during the three years from 2019 to 2021 the city filed a total of 11 labor standards cases with the hearing examiner. Since Ann Davison was sworn in at the beginning of 2022, the city has filed only two labor standards cases with the hearing examiner in more than three years.
Corporations steal billions of dollars from workers every year. In fact, corporate wage theft accounts for more money stolen in this country than any other kind of theft.
Aggressive enforcement of worker protections puts hard earned money back in the pockets of vulnerable workers, but it also helps our small businesses that comply with the law. When our worker protections go unenforced, the businesses that comply with those protections are put at a competitive disadvantage as compared to those businesses that don’t comply.
Enforcement of Seattle’s worker protections should be a high priority for the city attorney.
Rory O’Sullivan is running for Seattle City Attorney, challenging the incumbent Republican Ann Davison.
Rory O’Sullivan
Rory O’Sullivan is a founding partner at Washington Employment Benefits Advocates, a law firm that helps people with unemployment insurance claims. He has served as an Administrative Law Judge, as a pro tem judge with the Seattle Municipal Court, and as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law and Seattle University School of Law.