Wage Theft in Local Construction (1)

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Wage Theft in Local Construction
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• We all know that the works in a construction
  industry involves dirt and hard manual labor. But
  aside from the usual dirt that is involved in the
  construction site, there is also the existence of
  dirty business inside the administration, far
  from the prying and hard stares of hardworking
  laborers who risk their lives every day.

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• Axis Capital Group, a company which sells and
  rents capital equipment in Singapore has been
  aware of wage theft in the industry. Ever since
  our expansion to Jakarta, Indonesia, we have been
  increasingly alert for issues regarding this
  matter. In fact, we have put warnings to our
  partner companies and clients as well.

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• Wage theft is a rampant problem in the non-union
  construction industry and it drives down
  standards for all workers. It is the unlawful
  withholding of wages or benefits due to an
  employee. It can take many different forms from
  illegal deductions from an employees pay to
  outright not paying an employee at all.

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1. Overtime

• According to the law, unless exempt, employees
  are entitled to receive overtime pay calculated
  at least time and one-half times pay for all time
  worked past forty hours a week. Some exemptions
  to this rule apply to public service agencies or
  to employees who meet certain requirements in
  accordance to their job duties.

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• Since some unseen factors like the weather may
  hinder meeting deadlines, construction companies
  usually extend man hours even until at night
  despite complaints filed against noise pollution.
  In these cases, some companies would only pay
  regular fees to their manpower, not counting the
  overtime done by their employees.

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Minimum Wage

• Since in some cases, manual labor is considered
  as one of the dirtiest job and blue-collared jobs
  are considered to be in the lowest rank in
  society, manual laborers ae als paid in the
  lowest rate.

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Misclassification
Misclassification of employees is a violation
that leaves employees very vulnerable to other
forms of wage theft. Independent contractors do
not receive the same protection as an employee
for certain benefits.

• The difference between the two classifications
  depends on the permanency of the employment,
  opportunity for profit and loss, the worker's
  level of self-employment along with their degree
  of control.

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• An independent contractor is not entitled to
  minimum wage, overtime, insurance, protection, or
  other employee rights. Attempts are sometimes
  made to define ordinary employees as independent
  contractors.