Immigrant and worker advocates protested earlier this month outside the home of Magnum Fine Home Builders director Curt Hendrickson over alleged wage theft.

The home-building company is being accused of owing a past worker, Sergio Hernandez, $14,456 from painting and drywall work he and other workers completed in 2016. According to Hernandez, he has messages between Hendrickson and himself along with emailed invoices that document Hernandez’s attempts to collect the debt.

Director of North Carolina Immigrant’s Rights Program Lori Khamala was an advocate at Saturday’s protest and says wage theft is a widespread problem.

“We’re talking North Carolina, at least 84,000 workers are impacted by this every year, more than 12 percent of low-wage workers, and we think that it’s actually much higher because one of the biggest problems of course is chronic under reporting,” said Khamala.

According to Khamala, it is the North Carolina Department of Labor that investigates cases of wage theft, but the North Carolina’s Labor Commissioner for more than 15 years, Cherie Berry, has only filed 35 lawsuits against employers over wage theft in that time.

“The office of our North Carolina Labor Department is not rigorously enforcing these laws. And really that is another problem; that’s rampant. I mean, you see first there’s chronic under reporting; second, people may not know where to go; third, if they do know where to go, the issue still is not addressed,” said Khamala. “Not doing adequate investigations, not assessing adequate fines, it’s hard to file the claims in the first place and then even if you do, the enforcement is very lax.”

Khamala said that wage theft can happen to anyone but typically happens to low-wage industry jobs such as retail, food service, tipped workers, home health care aides and construction workers.

“Of course, we do see even more rampant violations in particular with undocumented workers because there are folks who are even more afraid to speak up based on fear of retaliation. So one of the things that was different about this case that I shared about on Saturday is that Sergio was brave enough to step up and speak out and go public. And I think it’s going to take more people stepping up and going public to talk about their issues, so that we can also send a message as a community that we, as a community, are not going to accept this,” Khamala said.

While no resolution has yet been made between Hernandez and Magnum Fine Home Builders, Khamala said they are going to use whatever tools to ensure that every worker is getting paid fairly and receiving justice on the job.

“We are willing to take public action, and we actually showed up – 50 people showed up,” said Khamala. “I live in Carrboro, and I believe it’s all of our responsibilities to stand up for workers in our community.”

Khamala said that if you are a victim of wage theft, to take the steps to file a complaint with the Department of Labor but to also speak with your employer, rally friends, contact local private attorneys and local organizations like the NC Immigrant Rights Program.

Officials from Magnum Fine Home Builders did not respond to a request for comment.