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FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Thursday, February 17, 2005

Walmart Deal For All Florida Wage Violators?

    The minimum wage constitutional amendment mandates that companies violating the law pay, among other things, double damages; subsection (e) reads:
    Persons aggrieved by a violation of this amendment may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against an Employer or person violating this amendment and, upon prevailing, shall recover the full amount of any back wages unlawfully withheld plus the same amount as liquidated damages, and shall be awarded reasonable attorney's fees and costs.
    Uh, that's pretty clear. But, as previously noted, in "Imagine That", the GOoPers in Tally are working mighty hard to craft loopholes. These include a "good faith" defense and, even worse, a fifteen (15) day repayment period (after notice of a wage dispute) to avoid double damages.

    The lawyer who drafted the language of the amendment, Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School associate counsel Nathan Newman - and author of LaborBlog - ain't happy. As he points out,
    Florida GOP state House leaders want to let violators of the law escape those double damages if they give the money back within 15 days of being notified by employees of the intent to sue.

    The Florida Republican leaders claim this provision fits within the intent of the Amendment. Since I drafted the damn thing, I think I can say with some authority that their bill completely violates the constitutional amendment.
    "Florida to Offer Wal-Mart Deal to all Wage Violators". Newman explains that
    the basic problem with this 15-day notice is the same as the Wal-Mart deal: Employers will have every incentive to violate the law recklessly. Even if they are caught underpaying a few employees, they can simply pay back the wages owed with no fine, while pocketing the profit from underpaying the many workers who will inevitably never challenge the employer's illegal activity.

    But then that's the point of these "notice" provisions-- to gut minimum wage laws and discourage enforcement. These rightwing politicians hate working class people and support corporate criminality. They are soft on crime when the criminals wear a nice three-piece suit.
    And, unless I've missed it, except for the AP wire story which was picked up by (at least?) the St Pete Times, which we blogged last week, there has been zippo coverage on this in the Florida print media. As the AP wire story says, the only people making any noise about this are those crazy "special interest" folks, the Florida AFL-CIO, and the group behind the amendment, ACORN; their "special interests? You know, those powerful folks making less than the minimum wage prescribed in the amendment.

7:38 AM

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