- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
On the morning of Jan. 22, 2024, Elmer De LeĂłn PĂ©rez descended deep into the bowels of a ship that he was helping to build in Houma, Louisiana. PĂ©rez was a welder, working to construct one of the U.S. governmentâs most sophisticated ships, an $89 million vessel for tracking hurricanes and conducting oceanographic research. It was funded by President Joe Bidenâs signature climate legislation.
When emergency workers found his body, PĂ©rez was already showing signs of rigor mortis. A coronerâs report would note that he was wearing a red hoodie, plaid pajama pants and brown steel-toed boots, and that a âcopious amount of clear fluid was noted to the mouth and nose,â as well as on the sleeve of his shirt. The coroner concluded that PĂ©rez âdied as a result of bilateral severe pulmonary consolidation and edemaâ â fluid in the lungs â and âcopper and nickel intoxication.â (The ship, like many, used copper-nickel alloys as a coating because they resist corrosion from salt water.)
But PĂ©rez wasnât working directly for Thoma-Sea; he was employed by a contractor. So when he died, Thoma-Sea paid nothing. Not to his family, including the partner that survived him. Not to his toddler son. Not even to help send PĂ©rezâs body home to Guatemala. Instead, his family borrowed money and desperately tried to raise the rest online. Family members said they havenât heard anything from Thoma-Sea since PĂ©rez died.
When PĂ©rezâs partner sought death benefits from G-4 Services, the local staffing contractor that had hired him to work for Thoma-Sea, G-4 rebuffed her. âPĂ©rez was a self-employed independent contractor and thus a claim for death benefits is not compensable,â a lawyer for the company wrote in May. G-4 contends that PĂ©rez âwasnât working at the time of his deathâ even though his corpse was found in the ship with his welding equipment.
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Employers with federal contracts are supposed to ascertain workersâ eligibility â and ensure subcontractors do the same â using the governmentâs online E-Verify system, which checks identity information like Social Security numbers against federal databases. But experts say E-Verify makes it easy for workers to provide false information, and government agencies rarely monitor compliance with these rules.
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G-4 is disputing the benefits claim, citing PerĂ©zâs ineligibility as an independent contractor, saying his partner was ineligible because they were not legally married, and claiming the sudden death of a healthy 20-year-old was not caused by his job. His death, a medical review conducted at the request of G-4 argued, âoccurred while he was working but was not caused by workplace related factors or activities.âSo the problem here is a shady subcontractor company which hires undocumented immigrants as âindependent contractorsâ, and probably doesnât keep track of whether those workers are working on federal contracts or not, and theyâre not being audited. These workers are probably uninsurable without valid documentation, so the company will do whatever it can to avoid having to pay out any benefits because they canât actually carry legitimate insurance.
The solutions are:
- Increase the oversight on such companies and enforce rules about identity verification.
- Close the âindependent contractorâ loophole, forcing all workers to be fully documented and insured through their companies.
Also make it easier for undocumented immigrants to receive temporary work visas. That essentially fixes the independent contractor loophole especially when it comes to government contracts