May 20, 2009

Car wash workers settle wages suit

By Chris Echegaray
THE TENNESSEAN

Former and current Shur-Brite Hi-Speed Car Wash workers have reached a $130,000 settlement with the West End Avenue business' owners.

Three plaintiffs sued the business, but the settlement will be distributed among 120 people who were earning minimum wage and weren't paid for hours. Managers clocked them in and out throughout the day, depending on how busy it was, according to the federal lawsuit.

The federal judge signed off on the settlement April 28, but the workers and their representatives held a rally celebrating it Monday at the Cathedral of the Incarnation Catholic church on West End Boulevard.

Owners of the car wash, brothers William and Glenn Smith, declined to comment.

The Nashville Homeless Power Project, a nonprofit that advocates for the interests of homeless people and low-wage earners, connected the plaintiffs with a lawyer who filed the lawsuit under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

"They didn't have anywhere to sit or eat," said Megan Macaraeg, director of Middle Tennessee Jobs With Justice. "To a large extent, the company has cleaned up its act. But the stealing of wages is a massive problem."

Wage theft is a national problem exacerbated by the bad economy, said Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, a group that advocates for low-wage workers in Chicago.

Bobo, who was in Nashville on Monday for the rally, is the author of Wage Theft in America. "The fundamental cause is greed in society and inadequate push-back forces," she said. "Over the last decade, we have seen an abdication of the role of the government enforcing labor laws."