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 Monday, February 1, 2016 from 6pm to 8pm at the NYU Law campus on wage theft and filing claims with the NYSDOL. (For those who can’t make it, there will also be a separate training on Thursday, January 28, 2016 from 6p.m. – 8 p.m. at our Jackson Heights office.) The training is co-sponsored by PILSA, Law Students for Economic Justice, and PILC.
– Participants will then volunteer in one or more of our upcoming clinics (addresses located at bottom of page):
February 2 AND March 22, 2016: 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. (Queens)
February 11 AND March 31, 2016: 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. (Brooklyn)
– 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 February 1 at NYU from 6pm – 8pm, or alternatively on January 28 from 6pm – 8pm at our Jackson Heights office, located at 92-10 Roosevelt Avenue. The training hours will count toward the 50-hour pro bono requirement, as long as you perform more hours of actual pro bono work than the hours spent in training.
– Since our clients are mostly Spanish speaking, Spanish fluency is strongly preferred. A minimum of intermediate Spanish is required.
– 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 in the February 1 training at NYU, please contact Leo Gertner for full details and to RSVP: lkg265@nyu.edu.
If you are interested in the January 28 training, 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!
Brooklyn address:
301 Grove Street
Brooklyn NY 11237
Queens address:
92-10 Roosevelt Avenue
Jackson Heights NY 11372