NYCOSH PROGRAMS

Latinos make up 25% of the construction workers in New York State, but represented 57% of construction fall fatalities in 2015. Latino immigrants are less likely to receive training and more likely to work off the books. Latinos are also most likely to have their wages stolen. According to the National Employment Law Project, Latinos are nearly six times more likely to be victims of minimum wage violations than white workers. Foreign born Latinos have twice the rate of wage violations as US-born Latinos.

The Manhattan Justice for Workers Collaborative (MJWC), coordinated by NYCOSH, brings together non-profit organizations known locally and nationally for their high impact work with New York City’s low wage workers and their families: La Colmena, Workers Justice Project, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, Labor Institute, and Queens College Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment. Members of MJWC partnered during the campaign to press for criminal charges over the workplace death of Carlos Moncayo in 2015.

Today, the Manhattan Justice for Workers Collaborative aims to end the disproportionate number of Latino immigrant New Yorkers who are victims of workplace crime: wage theft and criminally negligent health and safety practices. This program seeks to increase reporting of these criminal activities by employers of low-wage workers in all industries, but particularly in New York City’s growing construction industry.

• End the disproportionate number of Latino immigrant workers who are victims of workplace crimes committed by their employers in the form of wage theft and negligent safety and health practices.

• Increase reporting of criminal activities by employers of low wage workers in all industries but particularly in New York City’s construction industry.

• Offer low wage immigrant Latino crime victims outreach and training on workplace regulations, crime reporting, leadership training, and referral to victim services and case management support.
• Promote the belief of a fair and efficient justice system where workers lives are not expendable and criminal contractors who profit from exploitation are held accountable.