Wage Theft Right Under Noses Of US Senate

This story pretty much encapsulates the abuse of low wage workers by big business with the willing acquiescence of our representatives and government. Apparently workers in the Senate cafeteria were having their job descriptions manipulated and were forced to work off the clock simply to line the pockets of the companies that were contracted to provide cafeteria services to the United States Senate. That’s right, employees’ wages were being stolen right inside the US Capitol. An investigation by the Labor Department found that nearly 650 employees were robbed of around $1 million dollars in wages by these firms. That works out to nearly $1,500 per employee who was shorted and I’m pretty sure that every one of those workers could have put that money to good use rather than see it go into the pockets of the shareholders and executives of the firms that employed them. As Joseph Geevarghese, the director of the group that filed the complaint that led to the investigation, said, “If federal contractors believe they can get away with breaking federal laws right under the nose of lawmakers, imagine what they’re doing all across the U.S., where workers don’t have access to power and access to the media.” Imagine indeed. Incredibly, the Labor Department has said it is only considering to bar the firms involved from getting future federal contracts. Considering?! If we do not find some way to punish these companies for abuse like this, how we can we ever expect this kind of behavior to stop.