Pinellas and Hillsborough to join South Florida counties in combating wage theft

Share
From left to right: Tom DiFiore from Bay Area Legal Services; Cheryl Shroeder Ex Dir West Central Florida Central Labor Council; Aaron Carmella Field Director West Central Florida Federation of Labor; Ann Vanek-Dasovich Florida AFL-CIO. photo by: Rob Lorei

By Rob Lorei

Hillsborough and Pinellas counties will soon be joining several South Florida counties in passing local ordinances aimed at protecting workers from wage theft. Wage theft is when employees are withheld  rightly owed wages or benefits, sometimes through forcing workers to work off the clock, denying paychecks, or garnishing employee tips.  It especially affects service workers within the restaurant and hotel industry.

Here to talk about the new ordinances within the counties are: Tom DiFiore, Housing and Consumer Attorney for Bay Area Legal Services;  Jeanette Smith, Executive Director of the South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice; Cheryl Shroeder Executive Director of West Central Florida Central Labor Council; and  Aaron Carmella, Field Director of West Central Florida Federation of Labor. Hillsborough County’s recently passed ordinance ,expected to take effect at the beginning of the new year, will establish a business/worker mediation process through its courts administration office . Pinellas county is expected to pass it’s own ordinance pending a public hearing scheduled for Nov.10, which will allow workers to seek help through its consumer protection department.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Florida Child Labor Law Reforms Endanger Students’ Success

Florida Child Labor Law reforms endanger students' success according to...

City of Tampa hall
Opinion: Is the City of Tampa wasting time?

"This editorial is to specifically speak to a lack of...

This May Day, protestors are hitting the streets across Tampa Bay

Listen: May 1st is May Day, and citizens across Tampa...

oil drilling rig
Florida Senate Bill would limit oil drilling near coastlines

The bill would require the Department of Environmental Protection to...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

It's The Music Wednesday
It's The Music Wednesday