County Honors Attorney

Lawyer in legal center awarded for wage protection work

Victoria JuarezTHE SANTA CLARAFebruary 19, 2014 

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] supervising attorney with the Workers’ Rights Clinic at Santa Clara School of Law received the county’s Beacon of Light Award for her efforts in compensating community members for stolen and lost wages.

Ruth Silver Taube accepted the award on Feb. 11 from the Santa Clara County Office of Human Relations on behalf of the Santa Clara Wage Theft Coalition. The coalition works to educate the local community about wage theft and its impact on immigrants.

“Each week, I see clients who have been awarded unpaid wages at the Labor Commission after a hearing and have received court judgments, but are unable to collect the wages they are owed,” Silver Taube said in an email.

For the past 11 years, Silver Taube has supervised the Workers’ Rights Clinic at the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center. She has assisted numerous clients, including one disabled Law Center client, in getting sufficient wages from their employers.

“The employer breached his agreement to pay her health insurance as long as she was receiving disability benefits,” Silver Taube said. “The employer settled by paying her a large lump sum equal to the cost of her health insurance until she was 65.”

She established the coalition in 2013, which is comprised of 16 community organizations that enforce existing laws through wage theft ordinances and provide awareness about the the issue in Santa Clara County.

The award is given to individuals and organizations that work to advance the rights of local immigrants by providing education, policy development and innovative practices, according to Immigrant Relations and Integration Services of Santa Clara County.

“Ruth Silver Taube is a tireless advocate for the rights of workers and those who have suffered from injustice of any kind,” said Professor Cynthia Mertens of the School of Law in an email.

Contact Victoria Juarez at vjuarez@scu.edu .