Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh met with a group of immigrant workers and worker activists in Washington, D.C., to discuss the significance of protecting these employees and fostering ties among people who care about their welfare.
He was joined by other Department of Labor representatives in the meeting Oct. 6, according to a news release issued the next day.
“Everyone at the Department of Labor is working every day to make sure all workers can enforce their rights on the job,” Walsh said, according to the release.
He said workers have rights no matter where they were born or how they arrived in the United States. Those include the right to work safely and the right to be paid the wages owed by law, the release reported.
An overview of the Labor Department’s work was provided during the Protecting Immigrant Workers roundtable discussion, the release said. The staff works to educate workers on the right to a safe workplace and to the pay they are owed, to protect immigrant workers from retaliation in the workplace and ensure workers can help with enforcement efforts without fear of immigration consequences.
“We appreciate the work of Secretary Walsh and his team to effectively enforce the laws and ensure all immigrant workers can participate in Department of Labor investigations,” Liz McElroy, political director for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, said, according to the release.
