The City Council voted to send an ordinance establishing a wage theft prevention regulation to the Council’s Legislative Affairs Subcommittee following a hearing on the issue at Monday’s meeting.
Councillors-at-Large Steven Morabito and Jessica Giannino co-sponsored the original motion for the proposed amendment to the City of Revere ordinances at the Nov. 23 meeting.
Morabito explained how the new regulation would affect businesses seeking to bid on city contracts.
“The regulations would apply to every new contract, every renewal term of a contract, and any businesses bidding for city [contracts],†said Morabito. “This ordinance would prevent dishonest contractors, sub-contractors, vendors – any employer in violation of the Fair Labor Standard Act, which covers wage theft, which consists of intentionally misclassifying a job category or not paying someone minimum wage or overtime or just simply not paying someone at all – from pursuing any public bids put out from the city.â€
Giannino believes the ordinance would be beneficial to everyone in the city. “It’s really important that as officials we’re working to maintain livable wage and preventing wage theft in our community, so I think this is a great idea,†said Giannino, adding that Morabito had done a lot of research on the issue.
Councilor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto said, “I’m sure this proposal has a lot of merit and I’m looking forward to hearing more details in the Legislative Affairs Committee. I’m not familiar with it so hopefully we’ll get more of an education on it in Legislative Affairs.â€
