Employers and Employees Unite Against Southern California City Ordinance Requiring Registration Before Hiring Day Laborers
The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and the California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. of Oceanside have filed a lawsuit claiming that a city of Vista ordinance regulating the hiring of day laborers on city streets is unconstitutional because it restrains free speech and is discriminatory. The two groups represent an employer who has hired day laborers in Vista as well as and two Vista day laborers.
The groups are seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent a city of Vista law, unanimously approved by the City Counsel on June 27, from going into effect on July 28. The law requires anyone who hires off-site day laborers to register with the city, display a certificate in a car window, and present workers with written terms of employment. Violations would be misdemeanors punishable by no more than six months imprisonment or $1,000.
This is very similar to the city of Redondo Beach law preventing people from soliciting work on public property and hiring someone on public property (click here for prior post). The law was in the city's municipal code since the 1980's, but was not enforced until recently. When the city's arrest of day laborer's in violation of the ordinance was challenged in federal court recently, the law was held to violate worker's first amendment rights to solicit work on city streets.