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dubious guise of classifying their employees as "contractors."

In another case, California filed another lawsuit against a drywall contractor who was paying workers below minimum wage and "off the books." Another company is being sued for "teaching construction companies how to avoid providing state mandated workers' compensation benefits" (For further information on these suits, see the California Office of the Attorney General Press release at http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/re lease.php?id=1510.)

Finally, many international companies have a dismal record of exploiting their workers and have been accused of especially egregious employment practices ranging from underpaying to threats to workers wanting to join or form unions. An international sports equipment company, Adidas, for example, has been accused of "abuses at a giant factory in Indonesia that dismissed 30 union workers who took part in a legal strike demanding more than their current salary of 60 cents an hour. Another U.S. based sports company, Fila, was also criticized for having an Indonesian based supplier who had "an appalling record of worker abuse including long hours of compulsory overtime, verbal abuse, and sexual harassment." (See "Foul! Adidas, Fila Exploiting Workers, Charges World Cup Report - http://oneworldus.civiblog.org /blog/_archives/2006/6/16/2061 861.html )

The bottom line, of course, is money. Employees' salaries and benefits account for a huge share of any company's expenses. To reduce those expenses many companies have resorted to exploitative measures to raise profits by abusive tactics, where they accept employee dissatisfaction and turnover as a cost of doing business.

Learn more about this author, Jerry Curtis.
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