Category: Low-Wage Workers Highlights

NCLEJ Urges a Rigorous Confirmation Hearing for Secretary of Labor

See below the text of a letter co-signed by NCLEJ. Chairman Lamar Alexander Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions United States Senate Ranking Member Patty Murray Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions United States Senate January…

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Observations on the Adverse Impact of TANF After 20 Years

By Marc Cohan, Executive Director, National Center for Law and Economic Justice Twenty years ago then President Clinton signed the so-called “welfare reform” law. The legislation was a comprehensive and far-reaching effort to eliminate welfare as this nation…

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NCLEJ Ensures that Workers Compensation Hearings are Open to the Public

NCLEJ has secured a significant victory toward making the New York State Workers Compensation Board more responsive to low-wage workers with limited English proficiency. Worker Centers, which advocate for low-wage workers, many of whom are in service and…

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NCLEJ Reflects on TANF’s 20th Anniversary

It has been 20 years this month since the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which established the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, was enacted. Marking this anniversary, NCLEJ Executive Director Marc Cohan…

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Pregnancy Discrimination Complaint Filed with the New York City Commission on Human Rights

On May 23, 2016, NCLEJ filed a pregnancy discrimination complaint with the New York City Commission on Human Rights on behalf of a Ms. P., a pregnant mother. Ms. P. worked on the cleaning staff of a midtown office…

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NCLEJ Releases Report: “Empty Judgments: The Wage Collection Crisis in New York”

NCLEJ, together with the Legal Aid Society and the Urban Justice Center, released a report on February 25, 2015, showing the difficulties low-wage workers face in collecting their stolen wages. “Empty Judgments: The Wage Collection Crisis in New…

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Workers, Represented by NCLEJ, Demand that the NYS Department of Labor Enforce Labor Law

On behalf of its client the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS), NCLEJ sent a demand letter to the New York State Department of Labor to thoroughly and promptly investigate its unacceptable backlog of cases. At a press conference…

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Dodyk Fellow Trains Low-Wage Workers on Fighting Wage Theft

On October 10th, NCLEJ’s Dodyk Fellow Leah Lotto presented a Know Your Rights training to members of the Sweatshop Free Upper West Side Campaign (NYC). Members work in industries with high levels of wage theft, where employers fail…

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NCLEJ Successfully Fought Improper Barriers for NYS Family Day Care Providers

On September 27, 2013, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department affirmed a decision by the Supreme Court, Cayuga County, that local zoning laws that would have effectively barred family day care are unenforceable because state law preempts local regulation…

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New Mexico Loses Appeal – Exclusion of Farm and Ranch Workers from Workers’ Compensation is Unconstitutional

In Griego v. New Mexico Workers’ Compensation Commission, the state trial court initially denied a motion to dismiss and ruled that a severely injured New Mexico farmworker and two groups that represent farm and ranch laborers may pursue…

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