EJC Celebrates Winning Year

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)With plenty of work to be done in the year ahead, DC Employment Justice Center (EJC) Executive Director Barbra Kavanaugh recently took a moment to look back at the organization’s accomplishments in 2013. “The EJC and its pro bono attorney partners received $744,591.12 in awards and settlements on behalf of low-income workers,” said Kavanaugh, noting that over 1400 clients, 200 more than in 2012, “were assisted at our free, walk-in Workers’ Rights Clinics in NW and SE DC by the volunteer intake workers and advising attorneys.” Legislative wins included passage of the “Paid Sick Days for All” bill, the successfull push for minimum wage increases in DC, Montgomery County, and Prince George’s County, inclusion of the Wage Theft Prevention Act in the DC City Council budget, and pressuring the District government to apply its living wage law to home health care aides as well as other workers on DC government contracts, winning “between $13-20 million for these workers in potential back pay for 2013 and raises worth even more in future years.” Click here to read Kavanaugh’s complete report. photo: EJC staff and worker activists on Learning Journeys trip to El Salvador