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In Tough Economic Times, Day Laborers on the East End Fight for Delinquent Wages

Posted August 9, 2010 by Ted Hesson

It’s only 9am in early July, and the heat and humidity in Southampton are already stifling. But that doesn’t stop Sister Margaret Smyth of the Hispanic Apostolate of the North Fork from making her monthly rounds among the Latino immigrant day laborers who gather for work near the town 7-Eleven.

Aside from pleas for laborers to stay hydrated and avoid the sun, Sister Margaret, who has provided community outreach to East End immigrants for decades, has another important message:

“Ten cuidado de los patrones que no pagan,” she says in her proficient but heavily accented Spanish. Be on the lookout for bosses who don’t pay.

“Always ask, “Who are you?” and “What’s your address?” she continues in Spanish.

The men nod but say little. When questioned, however, each laborer has a story about a contractor who owes them money for work: some employers never answer their cell phones, others write checks that bounce.

“Sometimes we don’t make anything,” says Ariel Lopez, a 32-year-old day laborer who is originally from Honduras, but lives in Riverhead. Lopez estimates that he is owed about $300 at the moment.

Amid the financial downturn, day laborers across the country have suffered at the hands of unscrupulous employers who refuse to pay them for their work, or who pay less than the agreed amount. The East End, where immigrants come to work in the landscaping, construction, and restaurant industries, is no exception.

“Last year a lot of employers honestly didn’t have the money because of the economic situation,” said Sister Kelly Carpenter, an immigration lawyer who takes pro-bono case referrals from Smyth. “But the fact is, they still employed these workers.”

From 2008 to the present, she’s handled roughly 240 cases, many of which are still active. “It’s mostly over a significant amount of money,” Carpenter said. “It’s very rare that it’s a dispute over the amount of hours.”

Small claims court, however, only allows workers to file for claims of $3,000 or less, so when Carpenter sees clients who say that they are owed $5,000 or $6,000, she tells them that they’ll need to settle for less or take their claim to the New York State Supreme Court, which would mean hiring another lawyer and dealing with additional court costs.

About 50 percent of the defendants in Carpenter’s cases don’t show up for their court dates. As a result, the laborers win the case in a default judgment. A default judgment is a hollow victory, however, since employers who don’t show up in court are also unlikely to pay the amount issued in the judgment.

“We generally try to settle,” Carpenter said. “Then we know we get cash-in-hand rather than a court order on a judgment, because then we have to collect on the judgment.” Commissioning the sheriff’s office to execute a judgment can be expensive—upwards of $600—Carpenter said, and that discourages defendants from seeking the money that they are owed.

Carpenter has come across fewer wage complaints over the summer months, but she attributes the slowdown to the pay cycle of workers. A laborer might work without payment during June, July, and August, and then try to collect his or her salary once business slows down.

“As the job opportunities start to fall away, they’ll start to ask for their wages,” Carpenter said. “We really try to say to people, ‘Don’t work for a month on end without getting paid.’ [But] people are working for free, they’re so desperate.”

Tags : day laborers, east end, fair wages, hispanic apostolate of the north fork, sister kelly carpenter, sister margaret smyth, wages