Danya Moodabagil is one of our fabulous paralegals. She also acts as a volunteer for the Multnomah County’s Labor Compliance Program (LCP). Still in its pilot phase, the LCP was launched in 2019 and was modeled on a program at the Los Angeles Unified School District. This program will be a way to ensure that contractors on County construction projects are in compliance with all labor and wage requirements.
Wage theft and wage and hour violations are especially prevalent in the construction industry. Due to numerous accounts of these violations on the part of contractors in Multnomah County, the Labor Compliance Program is the county and community’s response to defending workers’ rights to a prevailing wage.
The LCP team will be staffed by a Labor Compliance Officer and up to 10 community volunteers. Teamed up in pairs, volunteers will interview workers and inspect the site for key violations. While volunteers do not act to directly enforce labor compliance, their job is to verify that all county employed contractors are following the prevailing wage laws and wage and hour laws when paying their workers and ensuring that all construction sites are in compliance. All forms and reports are submitted to the Labor Compliance Officer, who will then forward non-compliance reports on to the Bureau of Labor and Industry. After completing training and orientation, Danya received her first county site visit request last month, and she will be conducting many more visits throughout the year.
The Labor Compliance Program hopes to prove the necessity of this work and that guaranteeing labor compliance on all County projects will ensure better protections for our local construction workers!