For Immediate Release
Wednesday, June 04, 1997
Statement by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee on Why Workfare Participants Should Receive Basic Workplace Protections
Last month, the Department of Labor issued comprehensive guidelines for covering workfare participants under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These guidelines clarified something that should have been obvious to everyone: A worker is a worker is a worker. All workers, including workfare participants, should receive a decent minimum wage and basic workplace protections.
"Providing these protections to workfare participants is important for a number of reasons: It’s fairer to existing workers because it removes the incentive to displace employees with welfare recipients, and prevents wage depression; it helps motivate those whom, in many cases, are trying to enter the workforce for the first time; and finally, it’s morally the right thing to do.
"The Department of Labor guidelines made it clear that the welfare reform law does not provide an incentive for employers to replace existing workers -- who earn at least the minimum wage and who are covered by basic workplace protections -- with welfare recipients who can be paid next to nothing and who can be placed at risk while on the job.
"AFSCME believes in welfare reform that is done right. To accomplish true welfare reform, workfare participants must be paid at least the minimum wage and must be covered under the same workplace protections that other workers are afforded. To instill a strong work ethic in all Americans, employers must recognize that workfare participants are engaged in work programs -- not in charity programs."
"Labor is not alone in this battle. These views are shared by a broad coalition of civil rights, religious and welfare advocacy groups, including the National Employment Law Project, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Association of Working Women, Lutheran Services in America and others. It’s clear that most Americans want all workers to be treated fairly -- even working welfare recipients."
