Appellate Division’s Decision to Deny Wage and Hour Claim by Immigrant Worker Because of His Immigration Status Opens the Door to Rampant Exploitation and Hurts Workers Across the State
Elizabeth, NJ — September 4, 2024: Yesterday, leading immigrant rights, labor and legal aid organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking to appear as Amici Curiae and urging the New Jersey Supreme Court to overturn a recent Appellate Division decision denying an undocumented worker a claim for unpaid wages based solely on his immigration status. Amici, represented by Make the Road New Jersey, Legal Aid at Work and the National Employment Law Project, argue that the decision is a gross misreading of longstanding federal immigration and labor law, would severely undermine labor standards across the state and have a “chilling and prejudicial effect in all future wage and hour cases… for one of New Jersey’s worker communities most in need of these laws’ protections.”
“New Jersey is a state of immigrants. Undocumented workers are the backbone of our economy and vital part of the fabric of our state. The Appellate Division’s decision gives a free pass to unscrupulous employers to steal workers’ hard earned wages, opens the door to labor trafficking, rampant exploitation and will have a detrimental impact on working conditions across the state. We urge the New Jersey Supreme Court to grant certification on this important case,” said Lauren Herman, legal director of Make the Road New Jersey.
“Virtually every court nationwide has recognized that all workers are entitled to fight back against wage theft, whether or not they are documented. Our hope is that the New Jersey Supreme Court will hear Mr. Lopez’s case, and affirm that our immigration laws don’t give employers an open season to exploit immigrant workers with total impunity,” said Christopher Ho, director of the National Origin and Immigrants’ Rights Program at Legal Aid at Work, a San Francisco-based nonprofit legal services organization focused on representing low-wage workers.
“Undocumented workers, just like all other workers, have the fundamental right to be paid for their work. We are in solidarity with our fellow amici parties, including worker-member organizations, in support of undocumented workers across the state of New Jersey in asking the NJ Supreme Court to correct the harmful decision below that would deny workers this fundamental right,” said Marisa Díaz, Immigrant Worker Justice Program Director at NELP.
Amici curiae include Make the Road New Jersey, Legal Aid at Work, National Employment Law Project, American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, CATA, Laborers Eastern Region Organizing Fund, Laundry Workers Center, Legal Services of New Jersey, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, New Labor, Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ and Volunteer Lawyers for Justice.
Undocumented workers are an integral part of the state’s economy: more than 475,000 undocumented immigrants constitute about 7% of the workforce and face particular vulnerability to exploitation, labor trafficking and wage theft.
Media Contact: Diego Bartesaghi, diego.bartesaghi@maketheroadnj.org, 862-754-0696