On September 24th, 2014, the Center for Workers’ Rights and the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center hosted the very first Workers’ Right Clinic in Davis.
The clinic was staffed by 13 incredibly dedicated law student volunteers from UC Davis School of Law (King Hall). They have the ability to assist workers in Spanish, Russian, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Farsi. Comprised of mostly first year students, our Davis student counselors will receive substantive training in employment law at each clinic session. At our first clinic, David Graulich, a local employment lawyer, presented on wage and hour laws. Our Board Chair, Mariko Yoshihara, also supervised the clinic.
The issues of faced by the workers who contacted our clinic included discrimination, wage theft, and unemployment. One particularly appalling case of worker mistreatment was a misclassified truck driver, who was termination after reporting a workplace injury and whose employer now refuses to pay him for the last three weeks he worked. Had the Davis clinic not been available, this worker would not have received the legal advice needed to challenge his misclassification and would have been left without recourse.
The Workers’ Rights Clinic is held at the Pole Line Baptist Church (770 Pole Line Road) in Davis, CA. We open our doors at 6:30pm. Workers can call our office to schedule an appointment and we also welcome walk-ins. Workers who do not have transportation to the clinic can also schedule a phone appointment. In the fall 2014 term, the clinic will be open on the following Wednesday evenings: September 24, October 8, October 22, November 5, and November 19.
The opening of the Workers’ Rights Clinic in Davis addresses a huge gap in legal services for low-income workers in the region. This new clinic is the only workers’ rights clinic available to undocumented residents within a 60 mile radius.
Please refer local low-wage workers to our Workers’ Rights Clinic!
