IMPACT: Protecting Restaurant Workers

Impact

CLS’ Employment Unit has represented hundreds of restaurant workers over the years, recovering stolen wages and enforcing labor laws. The vast majority of our clients facing exploitation in the restaurant business have been undocumented immigrant workers, although our clients fit many other demographic profiles.Wage theft is a common practice by employers looking to cut costs in this low regulation, low union density industry.  We have helped clients with a wide variety of issues, including people who were not paid their last few paychecks, were denied overtime despite working more than 40 hours in a week, had their tips stolen by their employers, had improper deductions from their paychecks, had to pay for dine-and-dash customers, suffered discrimination, and were injured on the job but not given proper medical attention.

IMPACT: Fighting Youth Homelessness

Impact

Like far too many youth aging out of foster care, Ryan was homeless.He was working hard to find a job when he learned he had a bench warrant for a retail theft citation issued to him when he was just 12 years old. He never received the notice for court because his family was homeless at the time. This bench warrant was standing in the way of Ryan getting a job and an education.