Did you know that despite strong laws on the books, wage theft is still rampant in New York City, especially in the low wage labor market? You can get training on wage theft in order to help change this situation, affecting the lives of many underrepresented New Yorkers, and earn pro bono hours towards your NY bar requirements!
Who are we? What do we do?
Make the Road New York (MRNY) has been a key provider of high quality, language appropriate, accessible civil legal services to low-income New Yorkers since 1997. The Legal Department at Make the Road tackles poverty from three angles. We address key income disruptions that keep families in poverty by helping low-wage workers collect unpaid minimum and overtime wages, by helping families access and maintain often unstable public benefits streams, and by assisting immigrants to legalize their status and thus put their families on track toward improved employment possibilities. We battle poverty’s worst effects: hunger, substandard or non-existent housing, and lack of access to decent medical care. And we work to effect change in the systems that perpetuate and exacerbate poverty by engaging in impact litigation, government agency monitoring, law reform, and policy innovation.
Our Workplace Justice Project supports low-wage workers to combat the exploitation they face daily on the job through an integrated strategy of popular education and Know Your Rights (KYR) training through workshops, individual counseling and advocacy. MRNY’s community education and legal support work are crafted to arm impacted community members with the knowledge, tools, and skills they need to tackle the problems they face.
What is the wage theft clinic?
- Workers will come to the wage theft clinic for assistance in filing claims for unpaid wages (not being paid minimum wage, overtime, spread-of- hours or other wages they are owed under the law) with the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL).
- Participants will be trained on November 3, 2015 from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. at our Jackson Heights office on wage theft and filing claims with the NYSDOL.
- Participants will then volunteer in one or both of our open clinics:
- November 12, 2015: 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
- November 19, 2015: 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
- Participants will conduct an intake and assessment of the worker’s unpaid wage claims, along with MRNY Employment attorneys, and assist the workers to fill out the necessary forms to claim their unpaid wages.
Requirements to participate
- Participants in the clinic must be J.D. or LL.M. students and participate in the training session on November 3, 2015 from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. at our Jackson Heights office.
- Since our clients are mostly Spanish speaking, Spanish fluency is strongly preferred.
- Time requirements apart from the training and clinic sessions are minimal; participants should take no longer than an hour to complete the paperwork for filing a claim.
If you are interested, please send your name, telephone, email address and expected year of graduation to kyle.giller@maketheroadny.org.
We hope to see you here! You can help change a person’s life and fight systematic injustice!