In Today’s News and Commentary, New Jersey passes two pro-labor bills, a class action lawsuit against Hyundai survives a motion to dismiss, and a report about wage theft in the District of Columbia.

On Wednesday, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey signed two pieces of legislation that will strengthen workers’ rights. New Jersey’s A4429/S3302 expands existing protections against captive audience meetings. Previously, the law only prohibited mandatory meetings related to political and religious matters. Now, it includes meetings about employees’ choice to unionize. The other bill, A1682/S1054, ensures that labor history will be included in the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for grades 6-12. Specifically, the State Board of Education will be required to adopt standards about the history of labor and labor movements and include the following in the curriculum: the history of organized labor, notable strikes throughout history, unionization drives, and the collective bargaining process and existing legal protections in the workplace. While the impacts of banning captive audience meetings may be felt sooner, the latter law is equally as important for the vitality of the labor movement.

Also earlier this week, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia issued a decision in Martinez-Lopez et al. v. GFA Alabama Inc. et al., allowing a group of Mexican engineers to proceed with their class action lawsuit against Hyundai Glovis and GFA Alabama. Believing they had secured engineering jobs, the plaintiffs came to the United States on TN visas (which allow for the hiring of high-skilled professionals from Mexico and Canada) only to find themselves engaged in manual labor for up to 12 hours a day. The plaintiffs allege that they were defrauded, subjected to abusive working conditions, forced to work longer hours than non-Hispanic or Latino employees, and denied overtime pay. Another worker also alleged that she had been denied pregnancy accommodations and was fired in retaliation after complaining. Though the Title VII hostile work environment, retaliation, and wage and overtime unlawful deduction claims were dismissed, the plaintiffs’ race, national origin and pregnancy discrimination, fraud and RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) claims will all move forward. The plaintiffs are represented by El Centro de los Derechos del Migrante and co-counsel.

Lastly, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs has published a report highlighting the prevalence of wage theft in affordable housing construction projects in the District of Columbia. A Rotten Foundation: Wage Theft in the District of Columbia’s Affordable Housing Construction surveys wage theft litigation involving D.C. affordable housing unit construction projects over the past decade, exposing a trend of widespread misclassification perpetrated by a rotating cast of repeat offenders. Though Mayor Muriel Bowser has invested an astounding $1.4 billion in affordable housing, the report suggests these efforts are tarnished by “rampant” wage theft. While D.C. does have strong wage theft laws, the report suggests lax enforcement contributes to the problem and contractors view lawsuits—the majority of which have settled—as simply the cost of doing business. Potential solutions include more on-the-ground enforcement, a D.C. Housing Production Trust Fund audit and application reform, increased funding for the D.C. Office of Attorney General’s Workers’ Rights Section, improving government agency collaboration and communication both within D.C. and across the greater DMV area, strengthening wage theft laws and implementing restrictions such as suspension and debarment on repeat offenders, and hiring union contractors. Other reports focused on New York and Minnesota indicate that this problem is by no means unique to D.C.