Workers to file suit over unpaid overtime

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, Sept. 15, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

Norma Angelica Uribe Diaz came to Las Vegas a year ago from Nayarit, Mexico, and made the switch from promoting lunch meats to house-painting.

She left behind two daughters, 10 and 8 years old.

She explained both moves matter-of-factly: "It's what all of us (immigrants) do. We come to work."

Like everyone else, Uribe Diaz expects to be paid fairly for that work.

But because that has not always been the case, today she will be among a group of workers expected to file a federal lawsuit alleging that they have not been paid overtime while building houses across the valley.

The suit, which names Pulte Homes Inc. and Burnham Painting and Drywall, claims hundreds of workers have not been paid as required under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

Experts say the lawsuit highlights a dirty secret behind the success of one of Nevada's largest employers - the construction industry, which employs an estimated 152,000 workers statewide.

The secret: Homebuilders and related trades employ large numbers of undocumented immigrants and take advantage of their status and unfamiliarity with U.S. law to pay less than required by law, or less than agreed upon when the workers were hired.

"The most difficult, undesirable work in construction is going to Latinos, many of them undocumented - and many of them are being exploited," said Leticia Saucedo, one of the founders of the immigration law clinic at the UNLV Boyd School of Law.

Saucedo said 10 percent to 20 percent of the pro bono clients who have come to the school's clinic for help with immigration law in the past two years also complained about not being paid overtime or not being paid agreed-upon wages.

The clinic recently began a study of the issue.

Many Hispanic workers who feel they have been unfairly treated often do not complain, experts say, either because they fear that they will be deported or that trying to resolve the issue will take too long.

Some of them, however, wind up at the state labor commissioner's office.

Larry Dizon, chief investigator at the agency's Las Vegas office, said because state law is not concerned with immigration status, the agency does not keep track of the issue. But he also notes that about 60 percent of the workers who come into the agency's office are Spanish-speaking.

"Does that mean they're undocumented? No. Could they be? Probably," Dizon says.

The agency opened 2,644 cases statewide in the fiscal year ending July 1.

Although agency investigators do not go into the issue of immigration status when they interview workers and employers, Dizon says, he hears about the issue anyway.

"Employers say, 'I don't have to pay him, he's illegal,' " Dizon said. "Then I say, 'But you hired him.' Or they promise to pay $15 an hour and have the nerve to pay $5.15 an hour to build a house."

Brooke Pierman, the attorney representing the workers in the suit, said, "These workers, regardless of their status, deserve justice."

Toni Burnham, accountant for Burnham Painting and Drywall, refused to comment on the case. Sasha Jackowich, a spokeswoman for Pulte Homes, said her company had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment directly on it. However, she pointed out that the workers in the suit were hired by Burnham.

"We have seen this happen before. Organizations try to use our name to gain publicity over an issue of which we have no control," she said.

Jackowich said her company "values all people who build our homes but we bear no responsibility over the subcontractor-employee relationship."

Pierman is initiating the case with five workers but hopes others will join the suit. She is seeking overtime pay plus interest and any penalties allowed under federal law.

Uribe Diaz said she was paid $90 for each house on which she did touch-up painting, which sometimes took up to 13 hours.

She should have no trouble making it to the George Federal Building today, where Pierman and others are scheduled to hold a news conference after filing the suit. She cannot work even if she wanted to, having fractured her hand when she fell off a ladder earlier this week.

Now she may not be able to work for two months, which means she won't be able to send the $50-$150 weekly money orders home to her daughters, who are living with their grandmother.

"I don't know what's going to happen," she said Thursday while waiting for a doctor to see her hand. "I just want to see some justice - not just for me, but for many more."