LYNN — There are hundreds of construction workers who are or will be working at Lynn’s many current and future development sites. According to the Lynn Wage Theft Advisory Committee, it’s virtually guaranteed a chunk of them will get ripped off.
“It’s going to happen. It’s a slam dunk. It’s just so easy to get away with,” said Robert Reynolds, a member of the Wage Theft Advisory Committee who gave a talk on wage theft to the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee Wednesday morning.
“This is something the whole community has a stake in. This harms everyone,” Reynolds said.
Wage theft is a term that encompasses a variety of legal infractions committed by employers, including failure to pay overtime wages, failure to pay a minimum wage, or otherwise not paying an employee the full amount to which they are legally or contractually entitled.
It harms the workers themselves, but also the larger community, Reynolds said. Tax revenue is lost, workers’ compensation and unemployment funds are lost, and honest businesses are disadvantaged.
According to Reynolds, construction is the No. 1 industry in terms of wage theft prevalence, followed by the food industry. Lynn officials should be paying extra attention to potential wage theft, given the amount of current or upcoming development in the city, he said.
“It’s almost guaranteed that that’s going on at every construction site,” he said. “You want a big banner hanging over the General Edwards Bridge saying, ‘If you’re going to engage in that stuff, we don’t want you here. And if you do engage in that stuff, we’re going to come after you.’”
With the recent increase in development — including at least six major waterfront developments adding thousands of new apartment units — the Wage Theft Advisory Committee is educating the public.
To file a wage theft complaint, contact the Lynn Worker Center by calling 781-780-9685 or email [email protected], or visit the center at 330 Lynnway, Suite 368, at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month.
The Lynn Worker Center will try to resolve cases of unpaid wages with employers — in November 2019, it recovered more than $10,000 in lost wages. If the Lynn Worker Center is unsuccessful, it will file a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office, which residents can also do by visiting www.mass.gov/complaints-and-enforcement.
According to Reynolds, the idea isn’t to shut down any project for wage theft, but to ensure workers are fairly paid. Subcontractors are among the most frequent involved in wage theft, and people who do not speak English are among the most frequent victims, Reynolds said.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office provides a list of all wage theft complaints and enforcements in the state since 2015 on its Fair Labor Division webpage.
According to this data, there have been 86 complaints out of Lynn claiming nonpayment of wages since 2015. There have also been two complaints claiming violation of the state’s “prevailing wage” statute, mandating minimum wage rates on public construction projects.
