A Phone App Helps Day Laborers Attack Wage Theft (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes with this story from the New York Times, excerpting "After three years of planning, an immigrant rights group in Jackson Heights is set to start a smartphone app for day laborers, a new digital tool with many uses: Workers will be able to rate employers (think Yelp or Uber), log their hours and wages, take pictures of job sites and help identify, down to the color and make of a car, employers with a history of withholding wages. They will also be able to send instant alerts to other workers. The advocacy group will safeguard the information and work with lawyers to negotiate payment." Adds the submitter: "Although I completely support the app, personally, I see this encountering some significant legal challenges. Hope they've lawyered up." Though the use case is different, this is similar in spirit to "cop watch" apps, like Cell411 and the ACLU's Mobile Justice. (And of course there's Periscope.)

Comments

Sounds useful.

[ArylAkamov]

Sounds good to me. I've recently started logging my hours after a number of suspiciously low pay checks and frequently being "forgotten" on payday.

Being an independent contractor sucks. Especially when the boss is always several states away and never answers his phone.

Yeah, I should quit, I know, but it's either marine electrician or unemployment.

A small issue

[oshkrozz]

I can see the unintended consequence
IRS
They better be current on all their reporting to the IRS before making any claims for or against anyone. Day labors tend to not be so vigilant in this area

Re:A small issue

[ShanghaiBill]

They better be current on all their reporting to the IRS before making any claims for or against anyone.

I don't think the idea is to "make claims", but to make it harder for abusive employers to find laborers. My company occasionally needs extra labor for a rush job, and I head over to the local Home Depot parking lot to pick up some Mexicans. They all know each other, and word spreads fast, so scumbag employers will drive around and try different laborer congregation sites. This app will help guard against this by spreading information more widely. I never have a problem because we pay hard cash at the end of the work day. We also provide a free hot lunch (hot in both temperature and condiments).

Re:Nice and all

[PopeRatzo]

but when are we going to start enforcing minimum wage law?

The current minimum wage law is a joke. There are states where the minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour.

I don't care what kind of job you have, if you're working for someone, it's worth more than $7.25 an hour. If you're the Quality Assurance supervisor at a Las Vegas strip club, your time is still worth more than $7.25 a goddamn hour.

And by the way, I'm currently seeking a position as a Quality Assurance supervisor at a Las Vegas strip club. If you know of such a position, hit me up on Linkdin. But you better be paying at least $9/hr and offer free hand sanitizer. I don't care if there's an employee lunch room on premises, because I hope to be eating out.