San Jose contractor accused of exploiting laborers, making them sleep in shipping containers
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KTVU) - A Federal court case begins this week against a subcontractor, accused of exploiting immigrant construction workers and forcing them to live in shipping containers. Now, San Jose city officials are now considering expanded worker protections to keep a situation like this from happening again.
The allegations surrounding Silvery Towers are serious: that a subcontractor, Job Hernandez, lured workers from Mexico, made them live in locked shipping containers or warehouses, and didn't pay them what they were owed.
And while the case gets underway in federal court this week, officials says there are others out there.
"In the non-unionized industry, wage theft is pervasive. Every other construction job you go to you'll find somebody who's not getting their entire paycheck," said David Bini with the Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building and Construction Trades Council.
According to the Santa Clara County Wage theft coalition, 1 in 6 California construction workers is now a victim of wage theft. In San Jose alone, workers have had more than $2.9 million stolen.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/contractor-accused-of-exploiting-immigrant-laborers-making-them-sleep-in-shipping-containters