Ileana Najarro with Houston Chronicle May 1, 2019
A worker who was owed $3,305 in wages from her employer never recovered the money after the Texas Workforce Commission closed her case when the employer declared bankruptcy.
A worker developed a urinary tract infection after working 12-hour shifts at a child detention center without a bathroom break policy.
A domestic worker in The Woodlands worked 16 hour days without breaks at about $5 an hour while her employers withheld her passport and threatened to deport her should she try to leave.
These were among the 975 complaints the Fe y Justicia Worker Center received and documented between February 2018 and March 2019, according to a report released by the nonprofit on Wednesday.
Of these complaints, 623 were workplace abuse claims that could be referred to a labor agency or court. They ranged from wage theft cases to instances of labor trafficking.