Judaism and the Imperative of Ending Wage Theft

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.iwj.org/index.cfm/judaism-and-the-imperative-of-ending-wage-theft

Rabbi Michael Feinberg

Over the last dozen or so years, the Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition (part of Interfaith Worker Justice's national network of labor-religion groups) has participated in campaigns with our labor union partners -- garment workers, city park workers, doormen, janitors, security guards, greengrocery workers, delivery people, foodservice workers, cemetery workers, home health aids, daycare workers, farm workers, domestic workers, childcare workers, and laundry workers, to name just some.

One of the most consistent features of all these campaigns has been the need to address the employer practice of wage theft, where workers are deliberately underpaid or in many instances not paid at all for their labor. Such wage theft -- be it in the form of payment below legal minimum wage, the misclassification of workers as independent contractors so as to deny them benefits, failure to pay overtime, or outright denial of wages due -- is epidemic in scope.

The fact is that many of the most economically marginalized workers -- those with everything at risk, including their jobs, their livelihoods, and their ability to provide for themselves and their families -- must additionally contend with such unethical, illegal and morally reprehensible practices on the part of their employers. That these practices destroy the most basic contract -- in religious language, covenant -- upon which all sound employer-employee relations stand, is deserving of the full attention and response from the faith community.

In the face of pervasive wage theft and in their efforts to find their voice and demand change, these workers need and deserve all the support they can get from the religious community and from the law in pursuit of justice.

Some of Judaism's most important ethical principles include:

• The Dignity of all Creation -- K'vod Habriot
• The role of humanity to be responsible stewards to the Earth and all its resources, shared equitably
• The ultimate value and worth of every human being, each one created in the image of God -- B'tselem Elohim
• The dignity of labor/work as human partnership with God in the ongoing act of Creation
• The right of all workers to fair treatment, including a living wage, timely payment, and the right to form a union
• Concern for the most economically vulnerable in society -- the widow, the orphan and the stranger -- and the ethical imperative to meet their needs

FULL story at link.

[orion007]

1. Israel needs to follow princlples # 1,2 and 3,guess they don't have branch there yet. n/t