“To suffer or permit to work”

The Uncertain Hour

Marketplace

Government, News

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we’re finally going to tell you what happened to Jerry Vazquez — and how his story relates to the 1930s case of a hotel chambermaid. Jerry and some of his fellow Jan-Pro franchisees decided to sue the company, saying they’d been misclassified as independent contractors when they should have been employees (and entitled to minimum wage, over time, and other protections). But the argument over what defines an employee has a long and strange legal history. So, we’ll dive in and explore the origins of the federal minimum wage, why lawmakers wrote the law as broadly as they did, whom it applied to and whom it excluded. And we’ll tell you about this odd but powerful phrase, “to suffer or permit to work,” that’s at the heart of lawsuits like Jerry’s.

For even more of “The Uncertain Hour,” subscribe to our newsletter! Each week we’ll bring you a note from host Krissy Clark and explain some terms that have come up in our reporting. This week we’re looking at “misclassification.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, this episode is chapter three in a series.
0:03.2	You'll love it even more if you start from the beginning.
0:06.2	BEEP
0:09.7	BEEP
0:12.9	Hello.
0:13.7	Hi, is this Jack?
0:15.6	Yes it is.
0:16.6	The first time I called Jack LaPont,
0:18.5	it was just to set up an interview with him.
0:20.9	Still, when I'm reporting a story,
0:22.7	I try to record everything I do.
0:24.7	You never know what might happen.
0:26.2	Can I record you as we're talking right now,
0:28.4	just as...
0:28.9	Oh, yes.
0:29.9	Okay, hold on one second.
0:30.9	Jack is the founder of JanPro.
0:33.4	That's the commercial cleaning company that Jerry Baskas
0:36.2	bought his janitorial franchise from.
0:39.2	The commercial cleaning company where Jerry says
0:41.4	he ended up making less than minimum wage
0:44.4	and felt like an exploited employee.
	...

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