New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a permanent task force to protect exploited immigrant workers.
Cuomo says in the past year the state has ordered over 1,500 businesses to repay nearly $4 million to 7,500 workers who were cheated out of their pay. The new task force will make permanent and combine two existing task forces made up of labor and business leaders.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of work to do because it is all too common in New York that workers are exploited, especially when they are immigrants. We understand it, immigrants don’t have the resources to protect themselves.”
The governor says the new task force will also investigate companies who misclassify workers in order to avoid paying the minimum wage or overtime.