Illinois Enacts Law to Protect Day Laborers

From the TPM Cafe website:

By Nathan Newman

With an eye to the pervasive abuses against this largely minority and immigrant population, Illinois has enacted HB 3471, a law supporters hope will help force employers to treat these vulnerable workers more decently:

The law will allow the state to punish more severely those temporary-staffing agencies that shortchange workers' paychecks; illegally charge workers for business expenses, such as safety equipment and transportation; and provide unsafe working conditions.

There are about 300,000 day and temporary laborers in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Labor, which will enforce the new law.

Passage of the law is only the first step. To be effective, workers will need to organize to give the law life.