Injured Worker Finds Little Aid

When Armando Rubio began framing a house on Normandie Avenue, he didn’t care whether the contractor was licensed. As an undocumented worker with a wife and two young children, he could not afford to pass up the work.

On a sweltering August morning he began cutting 2-by-4s, holding the pine boards in one hand and his circular saw in the other.

Then, with a crack, his saw blade snagged a knothole and jerked his thumb into the teeth. Rubio leaped back in pain.

He grew faint when he saw the wound--his thumb dangling by skin and tendons. Another worker quickly took him to a fire station and Rubio ultimately arrived at a hospital, where his thumb was reattached.

But for a skilled workman who makes a living with his hands, Rubio’s struggle had just begun.

“No one is going to give me work with one hand,” he said.

Rubio, 26, tried to collect worker’s compensation, but in the world of construction day labor where workers are often paid under the table, legal responsibility for his injury is hard to determine.

“Day laborers are one of the most exploitable populations,” said Victor Narro of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, “because that kind of business transaction is difficult to track down.”

Rubio’s case is particularly convoluted. He said he was hired for the day by a worker named Javier Hernandez, who was in turn hired by a subcontractor known only by his first name, Dimas.

The general contractor, Jaime Raygoza, said he does not know the last name, address or phone number of the subcontractor he hired, or whether he had a license.

“He came on to the job site and asked me for work,” Raygoza said of the subcontractor. “He was here two days. In those two days he was supposed to give me a contract and license.

“He didn’t provide that and started pressing for money,” Raygoza said. “After I didn’t give him money, he just walked off the job. I haven’t seen him since.”

Workers, regardless of their immigration status, have a legal right to file a worker’s compensation claim with the state, said Tom Grogan, assistant chief of the state Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. What is unclear sometimes, he said, is who to file the claim against.

“If you don’t know who you’re working for, how are you going to file a wage claim against him?” Grogan said.

If Dimas was in fact unlicensed, Raygoza violated a business and professions code by “aiding and abetting an unlicensed person,” said Jonathan Parsley, spokesman for the state Contractors Licensing Board.

Raygoza could receive a warning letter, a fine or have his license revoked, Parsley said. But those sanctions do not make him responsible for workers hired by the subcontractor.

When Rubio returned to the three-home site to talk about compensation, Dimas had left without a trace. A new crew was building the homes.

Then, Rubio said, he went to Raygoza, whom he said promised to pay him $300 a week for the three months it would probably take to recover. He also said that he was told not to mention to anyone that the accident occurred at Raygoza’s construction site.

Rubio said he hasn’t been able to reach the contractor since that alleged initial meeting in August.

Raygoza told The Times he never met Rubio. He also said other workers who were there that day did not believe Rubio was ever hired.

“He walked onto the job,” Raygoza said. “He looked like he was trying to prove he could work and picked up the saw.”

Narro scoffed at that assertion. He said it made no sense that a day laborer would walk onto a job site and start working without permission.

But when no papers are signed and workers constantly filter in and out of the work site, Raygoza’s claim that he never met Rubio might be difficult to dispute, Narro said.

Contractors can abuse day laborers with little consequence, he said.

Workers who witness abuse, whether it’s a wage dispute or a worker’s compensation claim, fear losing their jobs if they speak out against their employers, immigrants rights advocates say. Also, those who are undocumented do not want to draw attention to themselves and will avoid testifying or pressing a claim in court.

Witnesses said Rubio’s accident occurred at the Raygoza construction site. Working about 10 feet from Rubio, Hernandez said that he heard the new hire yell “Ai!” and ran toward him.

“He grabbed his hands together,” Hernandez said. “I put some clean water on them. He was taken to the hospital.”

Records confirmed that on Aug. 4 Rubio walked into Fire Station 66 on Slauson Boulevard with a severed thumb and was taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, county health officials said.

Neither Dimas nor Raygoza were on the site when the accident happened, witnesses said. According to Hernandez, the subcontractor had gone to Raygoza’s office to pick up a check to pay Hernandez and never returned.

Hernandez visited the site for several days after the accident, hoping to collect his money. But no one was there. He is still owed money for five days of work, he said.

“I worked about 14 hours a day,” he said. “The people don’t want to pay because there’s too many of us.”

Narro said subcontractors often are not paid and in turn do not pay their workers.

Unlicensed subcontractors have no legal claim to money that was promised them, said Dean Fryer, spokesman for the California Department of Industrial Relations.

“It’s a big gray area here,” Fryer said. “It all falls onto whether the subcontractor is licensed.”

Abel Valenzuela, a Chicano studies professor at UCLA, said day laborers are commonly denied wages and left at the job site with no way home.

“Every single one that I interviewed had at least one instance of employer abuse,” said Valenzuela, who is conducting a study of day laborers.

One case that seemed a common occurrence, said Valenzuela, was of a worker who was given a bad check.

“He called the employer and the employer doesn’t know him,” Valenzuela said. “I would conjecture that employer abuse of day labors is a widespread thing.”

There are few avenues for relief, Narro said. Lawyers tend to shy away from such cases, in part because there is little money to be made from them, he said.

“You have the employer’s word against the day laborer’s,” he said. “It’s a hard case to win.”

Grogan said that in Rubio’s case, because the contractor did not hire the worker directly, Rubio would have to file a civil lawsuit alleging that Raygoza was partly liable for the accident.

But winning a civil lawsuit could be more difficult than collecting a worker’s compensation claims, said Loyola Law School professor Catherine Fisk. In a worker’s compensation case, Rubio simply needs to prove that the accident occurred while he was doing his job.

“Worker’s compensation is a no-fault system,” Fisk said.

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In a civil suit, Rubio would need to prove that Raygoza was negligent and that his negligence led to injury, she said.

“From his standpoint, it means finding a lawyer to come up with all the legal theory to [make the case],” Fisk said.

Rubio has hired an attorney, but he said he has only spoken to his assistant. Meanwhile, he takes the bus from his home in the Rampart area to a clinic on Wilshire Boulevard three times a week to undergo therapy. He can slightly move his thumb and do some work, but there is still a pin inside.

The medical bills have amounted to almost $13,000, said Rubio, which he cannot pay. A former employer has been loaning him $200 per week to support his family, and he has picked up two days’ work on odd jobs.

“Construction companies should take care of their workers,” he said. “This is a dangerous job.”