Laundry Workers Center was a proud member of the Justice for Job Seekers (J4JS) coalition, founded in 2014 and led by New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE).
J4JS ensures that employment agencies provide low-wage and immigrant workers with fair access to good jobs. Before, agencies all over New York State targeted the immigrant community with fraudulent, predatory, and substandard business practices like:
- The agencies require fees before the worker is placed in a job
- Required payments even if the worker doesn’t get a job
- Workers offered jobs paying below minimum wage
- No contracts
- Deceptive advertising
- They had sent workers to bogus addresses or businesses that were not hiring
For two years, from 2014-2016, LWC members worked with J4JS and told their stories, conducted on-site research, did outreach, organized direct actions, and met with legislators.
Laundry Workers Center is thrilled to announce that through tireless grassroots organizing, the Justice for Job Seekers bill S.8102/A.10672 passed the Senate 44-17 and the Assembly 109-15! We thank Senator Jeffrey Klein and Assemblymember Francisco Moya for standing with our communities to champion this bill.
Former Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill, and it became Law. The Law provides fair and meaningful protections to low-wage immigrant workers looking for work in New York. It is a massive win for our communities!
Learn more about the Law here.
Spanish:
Recomendaciones para immigrantes sobre agencias de empleos: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dca/downloads/pdf/consumers/ConsumerTips-EmploymentAgencies-Spanish.pdf
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