UT CLINIC Helps Workers recover thousands in unpaid overtime

The Equal Justice Center in Austin, Texas and the Transnational Worker Rights Clinic, which the center operates with the University of Texas School of Law, successfully represented a group of immigrant workers in a lawsuit that was filed in August in federal district court. The case, which has been settled, illustrates a common experience among Central Texas immigrants, who sometimes toil long hours without being paid overtime wages they are legally due, said their attorney, Bill Beardall, who is faculty director of the clinic and leads the justice center. Beardall said that, when measured per worker, the recovered damages are among the largest of their kind in recent memory collected in Central Texas.

The total settlement was for $45,500, including damages, costs and attorney fees. Beardall also announced new lawsuits against three other businesses in Austin and Round Rock in which 19 workers are seeking unpaid wages. In one case, 14 workers allege that they weren’t paid for four weeks of work.

KJ