[nfbwatlk] Fwd: [Nfbnet-master-list] Follow Up on Subminimum Wage Legislative Alert

[Mike Freeman]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>
> Date: June 27, 2011 9:46:49 PDT
> To: nfbnet-master-list at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Nfbnet-master-list] Follow Up on Subminimum Wage Legislative Alert
> Reply-To: dandrews at visi.com
> 

> from Anil Lewis (
> alewis at nfb.org)?
> 
> 
> Dear Fellow Federationists,
> 
> Michael Barber reports that the NFB of Iowa has sent over seventy letters to Senator Harkin, urging him to remove Section 511 from Title V of the Workforce
> Investment Act (WIA). This bill will be marked up and voted on Wednesday, June 29, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. If your senator is on the Senate Committee
> on Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP committee), please continue to write and call regarding this issue.
> 
> Section 511 reauthorizes payment of subminimum wages to people with disabilities. It is completely contrary to the purpose of the Rehabilitation Act, which is intended to promote competitive, integrated employment.
> 
> The following list contains the names of members of the HELP committee. If your senator is a member of the committee, please call his/her office to respectfully
> express your adamant objection to linking subminimum wage to the Rehabilitation Act, and to insist that Section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act be removed
> from the bill. If your senator is not a member of the HELP committee, call the committee chair (Senator Tom Harkin) and the ranking member (Senator Michael
> Enzi) to register your objection. Additional background information on Section 511 follows after the HELP committee list.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Anil Lewis
> Director of Strategic Communications
> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
> Telephone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2374
> E-mail:
> alewis at nfb.org
> 
> table with 3 columns and 23 rows
> Senator
> 
> State
> 
> Telephone
> 
> Senator Lamar Alexander
> 
> Tennessee
> 
> (202) 224-4944
> 
> Senator Michael F. Bennet
> 
> Colorado
> 
> (202) 224-5852
> 
> Senator Jeff Bingaman
> 
> New Mexico
> 
> (202) 224-5521
> 
> Senator Richard Blumenthal
> 
> Connecticut
> 
> (202) 224-2823
> 
> Senator Richard Burr
> 
> North Carolina
> 
> (202) 224-3154
> 
> Senator Robert Casey, Jr.
> 
> Pennsylvania
> 
> (202) 224-6324
> 
> Senator Mike Enzi
> 
> Wyoming
> 
> (202) 224-3424
> 
> Senator Al Franken
> 
> Minnesota
> 
> (202) 224-5641
> 
> Senator Kay R. Hagan
> 
> North Carolina
> 
> (202) 224-6342
> 
> Senator Tom Harkin
> 
> Iowa
> 
> (202) 224-3254
> 
> Senator Orrin G. Hatch
> 
> Utah
> 
> (202) 224-5251
> 
> Senator Johnny Isakson
> 
> Georgia
> 
> (202) 224-3643
> 
> Senator Mark Steven Kirk
> 
> Illinois
> 
> (202) 224-2854
> 
> Senator John McCain
> 
> Arizona
> 
> (202) 224-2235
> 
> Senator Jeff Merkley
> 
> Oregon
> 
> (202) 224-3753
> 
> Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
> 
> Maryland
> 
> (202) 224-4654
> 
> Senator Lisa Murkowski
> 
> Alaska
> 
> (202) 224-6665
> 
> Senator Patty Murray
> 
> Washington
> 
> (202) 224-2621
> 
> Senator Rand Paul
> 
> Kentucky
> 
> (202) 224-4343
> 
> Senator Pat Roberts
> 
> Kansas
> 
> (202) 224-4774
> 
> Senator Bernard Sanders
> 
> Vermont
> 
> (202) 224-5141
> 
> Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
> 
> Rhode Island
> 
> (202) 224-2921
> table end
> 
> 
> Background:
> 
> The key legislation around the recent Subminimum Wage legislative alert is the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), specifically Title V, the Rehabilitation
> Act, which is one of the most important pieces of legislation affecting the lives of people with disabilities. There is no bill number assigned at this
> time, but we have been provided the proposed draft language. On Wednesday, June 29, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP
> committee) will be marking up the WIA reauthorization. So far, we have been unsuccessful in our efforts to have Section 511 removed from the language.
> 
> 
> As the Senate works to reauthorize the Rehabilitation Act, a new section has been added, Section 511, which links Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards
> Act (FSLA) to the Rehabilitation Act. Section 14(c) of the FLSA is the law that allows employers to pay subminimum wages to their workers with disabilities.
> There are more than 5,000 entities that hold special wage certificates allowing them to pay subminimum wages to more than 400,000 workers with disabilities.
> Section 14(c) is flawed in its implementation, and it has been plagued with abuse of employers paying workers with disabilities even less than the subminimum
> wage they are entitled to receive as a result of this law. The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor is charged with the responsibility
> of oversight, but they are only able to investigate 2 percent of the facilities a year. Many workers with disabilities have not been able to collect millions
> of dollars of back wages because the statute of limitations has passed before WHD can identify the violation.
> 
> Section 14(c) is simply unenforceable. We have fought against this provision since the founding of our organization, and we have made significant progress.
> Section 511 threatens that progress.
> 
> The language found in Section 511 is a restatement of Section 14(c) of the FLSA, linking legislation that is supposed to provide the training and support
> for people with disabilities to obtain competitive employment to legislation that asserts that people with disabilities cannot be competitively employed.
> The philosophies are in direct conflict, and Section 511 sends a mixed message about the purpose of vocational rehabilitation (VR).
> 
> Section 511 explains the process a counselor would have to go through before referring a client to a subminimum wage work environment. The intent is to
> make it more difficult for clients to be steered toward subminimum wage employment. Unfortunately, the language opens a door to subminimum wage employment
> that did not previously exist. As a result of Section 511, if VR fails to provide a client with the proper training and support to become competitively
> employed, they will be encouraged to make a referral to a subminimum wage employer.
> 
> The language states that, once placed in a subminimum wage work environment, the client should receive a review every six months. However, similar to WHD’s
> inability to enforce Section 14(c) of the FLSA, it will not be possible for VR to properly enforce this law, leaving even more individuals stuck in subminimum
> wage jobs. A better use of the inadequate funding potentially slated for enforcement of Section 511, and the insufficient funding for WHD to enforce Section
> 14(c) would be to develop creative rehabilitation strategies to competitively employ all people with disabilities.
> 
> Many people have come to believe that subminimum wage employment is an opportunity for people with disabilities to experience the tangible and intangible
> benefits of work. We maintain that there is no benefit, tangible or intangible, to working in an environment that asserts that you are not as good as
> everyone else. Industries have been built on this false perception, allowing people, who otherwise would be able to obtain competitive employment, to
> be exploited at subminimum wages to bolster an employer’s profitability. The job market has changed drastically since the initial passage of this outdated
> legislation. With the proper training and support, people with even the most significant disabilities are able to be competitively employed.
> 
> We need to let members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pension know that Section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act should be removed
> from the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act.
> 
> -- 
> 
> David Andrews and long white cane Harry.
> david.andrews at nfbnet.org
> Follow me on Twitter @dandrews920
> 
> 
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