Richard Aborn
In a new column on Huffington Post, progressive candidate for Manhattan DA Richard Aborn, calls for a much-needed crackdown on workers’ rights violations and proposes using the “force of criminal law” to do so:
New York State has strong and progressive wage protection laws on the books, but too many workers go unprotected because those laws aren’t enforced aggressively enough.
(snip)
As the next Manhattan District Attorney, I will use the force of the criminal law to protect workers’ rights. I will designate a senior member of my team to lead an effort across bureaus to develop wage theft and related cases. Working with the Attorney General, Department of Labor, and the advocacy community, we will identify and prosecute “impact” wage law violation cases criminally, not only to punish or deter bad actors, but also to encourage the good ones to keep doing the right thing.
A new focus on aggressively protecting workers’ rights couldn’t be more timely. As Aborn points out, the federal Department of Labor under Bush abdicated it’s responsibility to protect basic workplace standards. A study from the Government Accountability Office showed that federal enforcement of minimum wage and overtime violations was down 37% in the last decade. Here at home, New York State Labor Commissioner Patricia Smith has done heroic work cracking down on employers who break the rules.
But using the force of criminal law to make an example of unscrupulous employers would send a clear message that violating basic workplace rights simply won’t be tolerated. Aborn notes on his campaign website:
Every violation of the minimum wage law constitutes a Class B Misdemeanor. But minimum wage cases may also involve other criminal violations – from falsifying business records and false filings to money laundering, which will be prosecuted as felonies.
Read more about Aborn’s proposal at: http://www.abornforda.com
