Protecting Workers' Right to Be Paid: A Handbook for Advocates

Abstract

Community and legal advocates throughout New York State meet countless workers each week who face an overwhelming set of injustices at work. Strategizing about how to attack the problems requires understanding what the workers' legal rights are, whether enforcing those rights is feasible, and what would it take -- beyond merely enforcing existing rights -- to bring justice to the workplace.This Handbook is designed to provide advocates with practical tools for analyzing the injustices workers face, determining what workers' legal rights are, and strategizing about how best to enforce those rights. The Handbook will focus primarily on workers' rights to be paid, with reference to other rights throughout. It provides advocates with concrete tips for analyzing whether a worker has a potential case and ideas for how best to proceed. It is important to note, however, that many of the law's requirements are very technical and fact-specific. Thus, this Handbook does not and cannot provide actual legal advice to advocates or workers