Posted on 11/23/2005 9:12:08 AM PST by Mount Athos
Omar Santos-Cruz came to the United States illegally from Mexico and went to work building houses in one of Alabama's fanciest neighborhoods before he was seriously injured in March of last year at age 17. A court has now ruled that Santos-Cruz is due workers compensation benefits and medical care for life despite being in the country illegally. The case is a possible legal precedent and a sign of things to come for builders who have come to rely on immigrant laborers in a booming housing market.
But the Home Builders Association of Alabama cited the immigration status of Santos-Cruz when it intervened in the case and asked the judge to deny benefits for the teen, who was partially paralyzed while working on a home in the upscale Greystone development in suburban Birmingham.
In a decision filed October 18th, the judge ruled that Henry Lambert Construction must pay Santos-Cruz workers compensation benefits of $240 a week for the rest of his life and also must cover all his medical bills.
Santos is in the country illegally, lawyers on both sides said in a hearing Friday. So are two key witnesses who were working at the job site: his older brother, Salvador Santos Cruz, and Regulo Mar Cruz, whom Lambert says was the teenager's employer, attorneys said. None of the immigrants was present at the hearing Friday before Circuit Court Judge G. William Noble.
Notice the bold! His f'ing employer is an ILLEGAL. Blackbird.
Food and McDonalds is a study in diametrically opposed concepts say I. Also, an oxymoron.
Many workers are illegal immigrants who don't speak English. Layers of subcontractors involved in a project can make it unclear who's employing a worker. Cash payments and informal work agreements are common.
That is from Birmingham Post Herald. The builder claimed he didn't hire the kid, but that the kid was working for one of the construction workers. The kid is suing for a half million.
Most illegals work for cash under the table and do NOT appear on anyone's payroll, so no FICA, Fed, State is taken out. The employer does not pay his share of FICA or unemployment or workers comp so there is the big savings to the employer, plus they do work for less $$ usually- not always.
Some use fake IDs to work and do pay all of the above and so does employer- BUT, they can't draw against what is payed in by/for them because the name on the payroll is fake or someone else's.
Legal foreign workers with a green card work under their own name and depending on the rules they fall under or their type of work they do pay into all of the above. The only reason I mention this group is some have said they pay into Social Security and then are not allowed to draw it- I don't know.
There is a gray area worker who does report income, using a TPIN number, not sure how that works- but that is really a scam they started doing a few years ago to get the earned income tax refund checks, most get a bigger refund than they paid in. Also they can use this TPIN instead of a SSN to get credit/home mortgage. As I recall, this was actually dreamed up by a nationwide tax service to expand their customers.
All of these groups of course pay sales and other taxes when they make purchases, though most of their money is sent back to Mexico, so not much is spent here. Some are homeowners, yes even illegals can get a mortgage, of course if they own a home they would pay property tax.
If you read carefully it sounds like the company has to pay the benefits, maybe the workers comp was mentioned by the judge generically or he meant the employer has to pay the same benefits workers comp would on a legal employee. Not sure which it is. The reporter did a really lousy job, and even though I read it twice I am not sure if it is to be paid by company, as it sounds in one part of the story- or if the judge actually order WC to cover it. Just not a well written article.
Kinda why those certificates of insurance are so important. Not foolproof, but shows a reasonable attempt to do the right thing.
Filing a first report isn't evidence of being responisble. I have had to file many first reports on subs and subs of subs, etc, 'just to make sure' because my company wanted it that way. Did one just today as a matter of fact.
Looks to me that the GC has a host of problems to deal with since he's not OSHA compliant, not supervising properly, and not tending to business in general.
Perhaps you're right, but answer me this: do you think the company is just going to eat the cost and not pass it on to consumers? History is an excellent indicator that the consumers will bear the brunt of this free ride the illegal alien is getting.
If this had happened to an American in Mexico, what do you think the American would get? Answer me that.
I see your point.
One business passing the cost on to it's consumers or going under does not concern me as much as the cost being spread out among many business owners- the majority who don't even hire illegals.
I don't think any of this is right. I think we should build a major barrier on the border, keep the illegals out and punish those who do hire illegals now. I also think we need to make sure illegals are not able to use any of our give-away programs.
I think if all of the above were accomplished, we would then find illegals had cost this country much more than they had contributed to our economy.
As things are now, I think those who hire them should have to pay the price when things don'e go well. Not the rest of us.
Sounds as if the builders just can't find skilled indigenous labour. Not so. My friends in the construction trades tell me they are undercut at every turn by the illegals; there is no lack of skilled American or legal immigrant workers here.
Free market ya say? Tough if Americans can't compete at lower wages?
You certainly don't see a commensurate drop in housing prices. The contractors and developers pocket the diff.
I think you're right.
A lot of the people who suffer are the poor, who have a harder time finding work, or get paid less, because of the flood of illegal foreign workers.
Ya beat me to the punch, moehoward.
Not being disrespectful to that poster, but that phrase is simply regurgitation of the daily propaganda. I know industrious and lazy illegals, legals, and Americans.
In my experience, Workmans Comp is strictly for the illegals and people who commit fraud. The liars and cheaters get compensation for life and very quickly. The ones who need it have to fight tooth and nail for the compensation and have to wait years to get a hearing. Puking.
It's not just the working poor, etc.
Everyone hears how American teens (H.S. or college students) won't work part time jobs.
Guess what? The jobs usually open to them are taken!
I was doing construction payroll in the late 70's early 80's-in AZ, I was talking to someone in the business in the same area, and I found out wages are pretty much the same now. I was blown away- I know home prices are considerably higher, as is everything else. He told me it is due to all the illegals. Yet we are told they do the job no one else will do, that is so much BS. I cannot think of one job they do that Americans did not do. Not long ago someone told me, you won't get anyone other than an illegal to do roofing in Phoenix in the summer. I know when I was involved in construction in AZ, there was no shortage of roofers in the valley in the summer- and they were not illegals.
ping
Ack! Why would illegals be due anything? Did his head get cut off?
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