The Workers’ Rights Unit advocates and litigates for broad, systemic improvements to benefit low-wage, immigrant, and limited English proficient workers. We engage in advocacy with government agencies and the legislature, as well as impact litigation. We also submit amicus briefs in important appellate cases affecting rights and benefits for our clients, all these efforts take place in strong collaboration with worker centers and other community-based clients and partners.
Workers' Rights Impact Advocacy
The Workers’ Rights Unit has long taken a leading role in strengthening the Massachusetts unemployment benefits system to support low-income workers during periods of joblessness. The Unit works to improve the Unemployment Insurance system for low-income workers through advocacy with the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and the Massachusetts legislature, as well as through impact litigation.
Areas of impact advocacy include:
- Addressing problems and delays related to the new online claims system
- Defending against proposed cuts in benefits
- Ensuring access for workers who speak limited English
- Reducing barriers to receiving unemployment benefits for workers misclassified as independent contractors
- Making sure that workers are not erroneously required to repay benefits that they have previously received
- Fixing problems that prevent workers from applying for extended benefits while in job training
The Workers’ Rights Unit worked closely with community partners, unions, and other allies to advocate for the Massachusetts Paid Family & Medical Leave (PFML) law, which passed in 2018. The law aims to ensure workers can take time off for family or medical needs without worrying about making ends meet or losing their jobs. Since the law went into effect in 2021, the Workers’ Rights Unit has worked actively to ensure that it is implemented correctly and effectively, and that all workers—regardless of income level, immigration status, or English language proficiency—can access their rights to paid leave.
Areas of impact advocacy include:
- Litigating to ensure that benefits are calculated using all wages workers earned in the year before they apply, even where they have multiple jobs or where wages were erroneously reported to the wrong state
- Lobbying for legislation to allow workers to supplement PFML benefits with accrued paid time off, so that they can receive up to 100% of their usual wages while on leave
- Making sure that workers whose employers have a private PFML insurance plan (rather than participating in the state’s plan) are able to access and receive benefits
- Improving the online application and appeals system
- Ensuring that all eligible workers are able to access benefits regardless of immigration status or limited English proficiency
- Reducing barriers to receiving PFML for workers misclassified as independent contractors
The Workers’ Rights Unit advocates to strengthen the wage and anti-trafficking laws and their enforcement, as well as to ensure that existing protections are maintained. We work closely with community-based worker and immigrant organizations to advocate with the Massachusetts legislature as well as with enforcement agencies such as the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Areas of impact advocacy include:
- Improving access to wage enforcement for immigrant and limited English proficient workers
- Expanding strategic or systemic enforcement—including support for community-based worker organizing—with particular employers or within particular industries (for example, restaurant workers and domestic workers)
- Strengthening the law and tools available to deter employer retaliation against workers who assert wage rights
- Strengthening the law and tools available to hold businesses accountable when they outsource or subcontract work
- Defending against efforts to weaken the Massachusetts wage laws by reducing the damages available to workers who experience wage theft or by exempting employers from coverage under the wage laws
- Expanding awareness of the impact of labor trafficking and the availability of enforcement options
The Workers’ Rights Unit advocates for stronger protections for workers injured on the job, again working closely with community-based worker and immigrant organizations.
Areas of impact advocacy include:
- Strengthening the workers’ compensation law to make sure that injured workers are able to report injuries, receive medical care, and file workers’ compensation claims without experiencing threats and acts of retaliation
- Advocating with the Department of Industrial Accidents to increase access to workers’ compensation benefits for low-wage, immigrant, and limited English proficient workers
The Workers’ Rights Unit aims to protect the rights of all workers including immigrants, who are especially vulnerable to workplace exploitation and abuse because of concerns related to immigration status. The Workers’ Rights Unit aims to ensure that immigrant workers are able to access workplace-related immigration protections, such as U visas for survivors of workplace crimes and T visas for survivors of labor trafficking, and related deferred action and work permits.
Areas of impact advocacy include:
- Raising immigrant workers’ awareness of immigration protections potentially available in connection with workplace rights violations
- Protecting workers who have received Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE) from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security because their employers were under investigation for workplace rights violations, but who may become vulnerable to immigration enforcement when their deferred action protections expire