Holt McKeithan is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s News and Commentary, Waffle House workers allege rampant wage theft, employers of seasonal migrant workers in Colorado systematically violate labor laws without consequence, and striking journalists at Law360 win a contract.
Waffle House workers, along with the Union of Southern Service Workers, accused the restaurant of a massive scheme of wage theft in a complaint with the United States Department of Labor. A survey by the Strategic Organizing Center found that 90% of Waffle House workers claimed to have had wages stolen by the chain in the past year. The DOL complaint alleged that Waffle House violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by requiring tipped workers to perform untipped labor, often up to three hours per shift.
Nearly one in ten Colorado employers relying on seasonal migrant workers have stolen wages or illegally charged their workers, according to an investigation by the Denver Post. Common violations include failing to reimburse workers for visa applications or transportations, illegally deducting fees for Medicare and Social Security, and failure to pay for housing and work supplies. Immigrant and Latino workers are the most likely to suffer wage theft. This rampant abuse occurs despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that Colorado farmers overwhelmingly rely on H-2A visa workers. Though the Denver Post’s investigation revealed systematic violations, the state and federal governments rarely bar the companies from hiring H-2A visa workers.
Journalists at Law360 reached a deal with their employer following a week-long ULP strike. The five-year contract guarantees an average wage increase of 12%, increases family leave, and ensures job protections surrounding AI.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.