Mother of Gabriel Infante, 24, sues employer for $1m, saying construction workers had no protections from extreme heat

  • marron12@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    The power dynamic is already heavily skewed in favor of the employer. Especially with construction and landscaping work, the way it tends to go is: workers need the job. The company rules with a pretty strict hand. You don’t like something, there’s the door. So you put up with stuff until you find another job or can’t take it anymore.

    Take away a legal right, and that’s that. The workers and the company both know who has the upper hand. Sure, one person could try to stick up for themselves here and there, but plenty of people don’t because they’re afraid to lose their job. And it usually doesn’t change anything anyway. Even when there are laws to protect employees, companies don’t always follow them.

    I’m talking mostly about non-union jobs there. Union jobs are better, but they’re not free of problems either.

    • ScoobyDoo27@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      And don’t forget in those industries you see a lot of workers who may not be legal so they have to put up with the companies bullshit. It’s not like they can get the law involved even if they wanted to. Companies know this and abuse their workforce heavily because of it.