FLAP staff travels to different populations in Illinois to inform potential clients about their rights and about the legal resources available to them. Through its own outreach work, and through its relationship with other community groups in the area, FLAP builds a relationship of trust with migrant and seasonal workers.

Contact us for more information: asossa@flapillinois.org

Community Education and Community Legal Education

FLAP covers Community Education and referrals for the entire state of Illinois

FLAP staff seeks to educate migrant and seasonal workers about their rights in the work place. We build upon our relationships with churches and organizations in the community to deliver “know your rights” workshops to groups of immigrant workers. We have recovered more than 3.5 million dollars in back wages and illegal deductions.

Please contact us for more information: asossa@flapillinois.org

Litigation, Outreach and Community Legal Education

FLAP covers Litigation, Outreach and Community Legal Education for 18 Counties in Northern Illinois: Cook, Lake, DuPage, Will, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, LaSalle, DeKalb, McHenry, Boone, Winnebago, Ogle, Lee, Carroll, Whiteside, Stephenson, and Jo Davies.

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FLAP focuses primarily on litigation to recover owed wages for our clients. FLAP litigates under both federal and state laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the Agricultural Worker Protection Act (“AWPA”). Our clients mainly bring forth claims for nonpayment of minimum wages or nonpayment of overtime wages in violation of these federal and state laws.

Defendants in our cases tend to be companies that remain competitive by breaking the law and by exploiting our clients. These companies and their individual owners manage to make higher profits by failing to pay their employees for all their time worked. These employers take unfair advantage of the fact that our clients are often unaware of their rights or are afraid of losing their jobs by coming forward with their claims. Correcting such abuse and preventing the exploitation of these workers is what FLAP seeks to accomplish through its litigation efforts.

The Law

Our cases are filed primarily in federal court, and our clients mainly bring forth claims for nonpayment of minimum wages or nonpayment of overtime wages in violation of both federal and state law.

We litigate primarily under the Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA) (29 U.S.C. §1801 et seq), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq) and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL). Often, we also file claims arising under the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act and the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (IWPCA), so the federal court always has subject matter jurisdiction over the FLSA claims and ancillary jurisdiction over the state law claims.

Workers’ Compensation | Referral Areas

In addition to our litigation work to recover owed wages for our clients, FLAP also relies on a network of qualified attorneys to handle litigation arising under state workers’ compensation laws. This network of attorneys allows us to provide clients who have suffered injuries at work without receiving any compensation with reliable legal assistance.

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By definition, human labor trafficking is “the act of recruiting, harboring, moving or obtaining a person by force, fraud or coercion, for the purposes of involuntary servitude, debt bondage or sexual exploitation.” FLAP clients often receive legitimate visas from recruiters who subsequently take these visas away. These recruiters frequently restrict the workers’ movements, house them in cramped quarters, force them to work without pay, and threaten their life and the lives of their families to prevent their escape.

Examples

Force could be:

• Physically hurting you
• Threatening to hurt you
• Visibly carrying a weapon

Fraud could be:

• Lying about working conditions
• Making false promises
• Fraudulent contracts

Coercion could be:

• Being verbally abusive
• Threatening to call ICE
• Restricting who you talk to
• Making you believe that if you leave, someone you care about will get hurt

Red Flags

Controlled Movement

• I am not supposed to leave the house without asking permission
• I am not allowed to leave the house unless I am going to work
• the crew leader won’t let me go into town on my own
• I can’t go anywhere because I don’t have a car and the employer won’t drive me

Controlled Communication

• I am not supposed to talk to the other workers
• I am only allowed to talk to certain people
• I have to ask permission to call my family
• I am not allowed to use the phone on the property
• I am not supposed to talk to anyone when we go to the store
• I am not allowed to have visitors

Ongoing Debt

• The crew leader says I owe him money but won’t tell me how much
• The crew leader takes part of my pay check every week and says it is to pay off my debt
• I owe money to the crew leader but he hasn’t paid me in a month

Physical Threats

• I see the boss hit people sometimes
• He tells me he will find me if I leave
• The boss carries a gun when he watches us work
• The crew leader punishes people who don’t do what he says
• He grabbed me by the shirt and pushed me because he thought I wasn’t working fast enough

Immigration Threats 

• My employer took my papers and won’t give them back
• The crew leader threatened to call ICE if I leave
• They will call the police if I complain

Controlled Access to Food

• I am not allowed to stop working to eat lunch
• I am not allowed to go to a grocery store
• My employer provides our food
• I have no way of making food
• The boss won’t give me food if he’s mad at me

Denied Medical Care

• I need to go to a doctor but the crew leader won’t let me go
• I went to the doctor and am not supposed to be working but the crew leader told me I had to
• They don’t let me leave the fields when they spray pesticides
• The boss told me to lie about what happened when I went to see the doctor

Fear of Harm to Others

• I am afraid of what they will do to my family if I say anything
• They know where my family lives
• If I leave, what will happen to the other workers?

What Should I Do?

1. Pay attention during conversations.
2. Recognize red flags.
3. Call one of the safe numbers below:

Call a Safe Number!

1 (888) 373-7888 – National Human Trafficking Hotline

Text “info” or “help” to BeFree (text goes to the National Human Trafficking Hotline)

Farmworker & Landscaper Advocacy Project:  (815) 909-0362 – (630) 877-8381

All calls are confidential.

You will not be required to:

• Give your name
• Give your location
• Give the name of the person you are worried about

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