State Rep. Tom Goodson, R-Titusville, today defended his “Florida Wage Protection Law,” which, if passed, will override local anti-wage theft measures like one that protects workers in Miami-Dade County.
“I’m a businessman with four companies,” Goodson told The Florida Independent. “I work in four different counties — Brevard, Orange, Volusia and Indian River — and I don’t need four local wage theft ordinances to deal with.”
Goodson said that because state and federal laws supersede local ordinances, he doesn’t “see the purpose” in municipal rules, adding that his legislation, House Bill 241, would benefit businessmen and “everybody who has a payroll.”
Goodson said he would have to check with a House legal aid when made aware of comments by Jose Rodriguez, staff attorney at Florida Legal Services, that laws cited in H.B. 241 do not protect local workers against wage theft. “I don’t believe that to be true,” Goodson said. “I’m sure federal and state laws have been enacted longer.”
Goodson also confirmed that the Florida Retail Federation helped draft the bill he filed in mid-January. In August 2010, the Retail Federation filed a constitutional challenge against Miami-Dade County to stop the enforcement of its wage theft ordinance.
