Date of Issue:  September 7, 2006

For Immediate Release

CONTACT:    Michael Stoops, Acting Executive Director
 202.462.4822 ext. 19, mstoops@nationalhomeless.org

HOMELESS EMPLOYEES FILE SUIT TO STOP ABUSES OF MINIMUM WAGE LAWS

Washington DC, September 7, 2006 – The National Coalition for the Homeless announced today that a class action lawsuit has been brought on behalf of Washington, D.C. area homeless employees of eviction companies to stop the eviction companies’ continuing violations of minimum wage law and to recover back pay for years of illegal wages. Michael Stoops, the acting Executive Director of National Coalition for the Homeless, says, “The fact of the matter is that there are eviction companies exploiting homeless people’s right to fair wages and action needs to take place.” 

The class action complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on September 5, follows a four-month investigation into the eviction industry’s wage practices, conducted by the Coalition with the assistance of the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.

The complaint alleges that, for the past four years, eviction companies working in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area regularly hired homeless employees to remove the belongings of tenants evicted from their homes.  The eviction companies, it alleges, routinely pay these homeless workers only $5.00 per eviction, regardless of the number of hours they worked.  This amount is far below the D.C. minimum wage ($7.00 per hour and $28.00 per day) and comparable Maryland, Virginia and Federal minimum wages.  The complaint further alleges that on days when an eviction was cancelled, the homeless employees received no payment at all.

Representing the hundreds, if not thousands, of primarily homeless persons employed to perform evictions services in the area at subminimum wages, the homeless employees claim in this lawsuit that the eviction companies have violated and continue to violate minimum wage and antitrust statutes under District, state and federal law, and have unjustly enriched themselves at the expense of their employees.  Through this action, the plaintiffs and the Coalition seek to stop the eviction companies from continuing such abuses and to recover the compensation the workers have lawfully earned and are entitled to under the law. 

The case is being handled on a pro bono basis by the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.  Founded in 1946 by lawyers committed to legal excellence, internationalism and diversity, Cleary Gottlieb is a leading international law firm with offices around the world.