Monthly Archives: August 2022

Coinbase Is Riddled With Insider Trading, Researchers Allege – Futurism

Posted: August 23, 2022 at 12:55 am

Who could have foreseen this?Insider Trading

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase might have a much bigger insider trading problem than we thought.

Traders may have had access to improper info ahead of 15 to 37 listings ten to 25 percent of the total on the exchange since 2018, according to researchers at the University of Technology Sydney.

In their new paper, the three Australian researchers found "evidence of systematic insider trading in cryptocurrency markets," with their analysis showing "significant price run-ups before official listing announcements, similar to prosecuted cases of insider trading in stock markets."

While it's not exactly a smoking gun, it's yet another data point suggesting that insider trading is rampant on crypto exchanges bringing the worst sins of traditional finance, in other words, to the brave new world of blockchain.

"Our findings identify cases that are yet to be prosecuted,"they wrote.

The team looked at the average price of 146 coins 300 and 100 hours before Coinbase the largest publicly traded exchange in the world made the announcement that they'd be listed on the platform. On average, tokens rose another two percent over the next 100 hours.

"From visual inspection, we note that there is an evident run-up pattern prior to the listing announcement starting at -250 hours," they write, implying that insiders had advanced, non-public notice of profitable investments.

The news comes weeks after a Coinbase manager was indicted by federal prosecutors for leaking info about new crypto due to be listed on the exchange to a brother and friend, getting away with more than $1 million in profit before attempting to flee the country.

The crypto exchange is also reportedly under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is looking into whether crypto on it should've been registered as securities.

Not everybody agrees the new paper is evidence to take seriously. One expert source told Decrypt that the study "jumps to conclusions" without providing clear evidence.

Meanwhile, a Coinbase spokesperson reiterated in a statement to Decrypt that it "takes allegations of front-running incredibly seriously. We work hard to ensure all market participants have access to the same information."

Whether that kind of line of reasoning will prove to be enough to convince federal prosecutors, of course, remains to be seen.

READ MORE: Coinbase Has a Serious Insider Trading Problem, Study Claims [Decrypt]

More on Coinbase: Coinbase Reportedly Under Investigation by the SEC

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Russia Warns That Nuclear Plant It Captured May Leak Waste Over Europe – Futurism

Posted: at 12:55 am

Russia's Ministry of Defense has warned that the nuclear power plant it's currently occupying in southern Ukraine could suffer damage and result in an accident if shelling continues, CNBC reports.

The news comes after both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of attacking the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant the largest nuclear power plant on the continent.The bottom line, of course, is that there's be no fighting there at all if Russia hadn't invaded Ukraine this year.

Igor Kirillov, the head of Russias radioactive, chemical and biological defense forces, told Reuters that the nuclear plant's backup support systems were damaged as a result of Ukraine's actions. According to Kirillov, an accident could cause radioactive material to cover Germany, Poland, and Slovakia.

Russian forces occupied the facility in March, holding Ukrainian employees at the site at gunpoint. The latest accusations and finger pointing serve as a dangerous escalation.

Ukrainian officials recently accused Russia of using the plant as "a shield," because Ukrainian forces wouldn't dare strike the facility.

"The Ukrainian Armed Forces know that these are Ukrainian personnel and this is a Ukrainian plant and there are Ukrainian people [there] so we aren't going to kill our people, our staff and damage our infrastructure," Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, Ukraine's state enterprise in charge of operating the country's nuclear plants, told the BBC earlier this month.

It's a precarious situation. According to CNBC, while an accident can't technically result in the kind of meltdown that caused the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the risks are still high. If containment walls were to be breached, radioactive material, including from spent fuel pools, could leak.

And that has the international community worried. Last week, officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, said they were alarmed by Russia's bombing near the nuclear power plant.

"This is a serious hour, a grave hour and the IAEA must be allowed to conduct its mission to Zaporizhzhia as soon as possible," IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi told the UN's Security Council last week, as quoted byReuters.

Yet Russia maintains that Ukrainian forces are shelling the site themselves, potentially risking a catastrophe.

On Twitter, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak pointed out an obvious solution: "You simply have to remove the UF from shops, demine buildings, release the workers, stop shelling from the [power plant complex] and leave the station."

"It's simple, isn't it?" he added.

READ MORE: Russia warns radioactive waste could hit Germany if accident occurs at damaged nuclear power plant [CNBC]

More on the situation: Officials Beg Russia to Stop Bombing Near Europe's Largest

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Hubble Gives JWST a Run for Its Money With Gorgeous "Celestial Cloudscape" Photo – Futurism

Posted: at 12:55 am

Hubble's still got it.A Star Is Born

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope may be quite a bit older than its groundbreaking successor, but as an incredible new image of the Orion Nebula goes to show, it's still delivering some mind-blowing new images of the cosmos.

This "celestial cloudscape," asthe European Space Agency (ESA) refers to it, is what is known as a "Herbig-Haro object," which are the glowing clouds that surround stars as they're born.

Herbig-Haro objects, "are formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shockwaves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds," according to the ESA.

And, needless to say, the resulting composite image of the object is absolutely breathtaking.

The gigantic Orion Nebula is one of the most studied objects in space both because of its massive size it spans 24 light-years across and because it's only about 1,000 light years away from Earth. In the right conditions, it can even be seen by the naked eye from Earth.

Although it's been photographed on plenty of occasions, this latest image of the Orion Nebula is actually a composite of a whopping 520 exposures, showcasing an astonishing amount of detail.

"The outflows themselves are visible as gracefully curving structures at the top and bottom of this image," the ESA waxes in its description. "Their interaction with the large-scale flow of gas and dust from the core of the nebula distorts them into sinuous curves."

Most of us can't muster that kind of flowery, sensuous prose for our significant others, much less for objects further away than we could ever hope to travel in our lifetimes.

But then again, most of us aren't astrophysicists, either.

READ MORE:Celestial Cloudscape in the Orion Nebula [ESA]

More on Hubble:NASA Releases Hubble Image of Most Distant Star Ever Seen

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Tesla’s Jacking Up the Cost of Its Unfinished Self-Driving Feature Again – Futurism

Posted: at 12:55 am

It now costs about as much as an entry-level car.Price Hike

Tesla is jacking up the price of its still unfinished and misleadingly named Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature, yet again.

According to a tweet by CEO Elon Musk, the company will hike the price of the controversial software add-on from $12,000 to $15,000, a substantial price increase that will make it even more difficult to justify,especially for those just entering the electric vehicle market.

The decision shines an even brighter spotlight on the project, which in principle has immense promise but which has struggled to deliver on Musk's outsize promises and caused the automaker endless headaches, safety issues, and brand perception challenges.

FSD extends the capabilities of the car company's Autopilot driver assistance package by adding features like "Traffic and Stop Sign Control" and "Navigate on Autopilot," which can take over most driving duties as long as the driver keeps their hands on the wheel at all times, ready to take over if it screws up.

That's crucially important because the software is still far from perfect, as several beta testers have demonstrated in shocking videos.

Federal regulators like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are also starting to pay attention, with feds currently investigating the company's driver assistance features for being involved in dozens of collisions on public roads.

With a wider and wider deployment, Tesla is gearing up to have access to FSD in the hands of pretty much anybody willing to pay for it.

"Were still tracking very much to have widespread deployment of FSD Beta this year in North America," Musk said at the company's annual shareholder meeting earlier this month. "So I should say basically, FSD will be available to anyone who requests it by the end of this year."

While regulators are starting to become wary of Tesla's decision to test out its unfinished software on public roads, the company maintains that it's safer than having humans in charge.

"Autopilot prevents around 40 crashes a day where human drivers mistakenly press the accelerator at 100 percent instead of the brakes," Ashok Elluswamy, Teslas director of Autopilot software, tweeted over the weekend.

READ MORE: Elon Musk says Tesla will hike the price of FSD driver assistance software by 25% in September [CNBC]

More on Full Self-Driving:California Wants Tesla to Stop Calling Half-Finished System "Full Self-Driving"

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Elon Musk Promises a Big Halloween Surprise – TheStreet

Posted: at 12:43 am

Halloween will have a special flavor this year for fans and critics of Elon Musk.

The whimsical and charismatic CEO of Tesla (TSLA) hasindeed just encouraged everyone to tick next October 31 in their calendar.

The only certainty for the moment is that the billionaire will not talk about Tesla, the manufacturer of electric vehicles, that day. Nor will he mention the prowess of SpaceX, his space exploration company with which he promises to conquer the planet.

There will also be no question of The Boring Company, his company which digs tunnels, in Las Vegas in particular, in order to relieve the city of traffic jams. By elimination, that leaves us with Neuralink, the billionaire's company specializing in artificial intelligence. This company made headlines recently because Musk admitted having had twins last November with Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive.

But a recent tweet from Musk aims to put the firm back in the news for its missions and ambitions. Indeed, the richest man in the world with a fortune estimated at $260 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires index, promises important announcements about Neuralink on Halloween night.

"Neuralink progress update show & tell on October 31 st (Halloween)," Musk posted on August 22without giving further details.

The choice of the day of Halloween is surprising because it is a Celtic pagan festival supposed to celebrate ghosts or the return of spirits. But Neuralink is surrounded by the cult of secrecy. Of Musk's companies, this is the one we know the least about.

Elon Musk launched Neuralink in 2016.The company designs and installs brain-machine interfaces. The objective of this technology is to strengthen our cognitive abilities by interacting directly on our brains. In August 28, 2020, the billionaire and Neuralink tested their chip on a pig.

Gertrude is a young sow who is part of these tests. She is equipped with The Link, Neuralink's first brain-machine interface.The animal has had an 8 millimeter chip implanted in her brain, which already makes it possible to observe cerebral activity.

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For Musk, Neuralink will soon make it possible to save our memories, and potentially to download them into another body or into a robot. Its technology, the company said, should also provide a better understanding of neurological diseases. With Neuralink, we will probably also be able to stream music to our brains.

But the firmhas fallen behind the competition. Synchron, which is developing its own brain-machine interface technology, obtained regulatory approvals from the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2021 to test its chip on humans.

Synchron also conducted tests on four people in Australia. Unlike the Neuralink implant, the Synchron implant can be installed without having to open the patient's skull. The purpose of this technology is to make life easier for paralyzed people by offering them a way to control electronic devices with their thoughts.

Neuralink thought it could start its trials in 2022, but still does not have the authorizations. Faced with this situation, Musk is in talks with Synchron to invest in the company, according to several news outlets, citing anonymous sources.

Neuralink is bleeding: Musk and Dongjin Seo, implant engineer who is "designing computer chips to seamlessly connect human brains and machines," are the only ones of the eight founders of the startup to still be present. Former Neuralink CEO Max Hodak, who left his post in 2021, is now one of Synchron's investors.

In the absence of being able to experiment on humans, Neuralink has multiplied the tests on animals. After a pig, the firm tested its technology on monkeys.A practice that had sparked controversy because some monkeys died as part of its testing procedures. Neuralink disputed that it was animal cruelty.

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"The use of every animal was extensively planned and considered to balance scientific discovery with the ethical use of animals. As part of this work, two animals were euthanized at planned end dates to gather important histological data, and six animals were euthanized at the medical advice of the veterinary staff at UC Davis [University of California, Davis Primate Center]," the company defended itself last February.

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Elon Musk and Tesla Make a Bold Decision – TheStreet

Posted: at 12:43 am

Tesla (TSLA) and Chief Executive Elon Musk are in a race against time to keep their promises.

The entrepreneur has promised thatby year's endTesla vehicles will be able to drive themselves completely, even when the regulations are far from ready.

The technology, according to some experts, is also not up to date.

"I would be shocked if we do not achieve full-self-driving safer than a human this year. I would be shocked," Musk said during Tesla's 2021 fourth-quarter-earnings call in January.

He emphasized: "Being safer than a human is a low standard, not a high standard. People are often distracted, tired, texting. Its remarkable that we dont have more accidents." In other words, owners and future owners of Tesla cars will have a feature enabling their cars to drive themselves in any conditions by the end of the year.

To emphasize that he'll be able to keep this promise, the billionaire and Tesla have just rolled out a new update of full-self-driving software, the company's most advanced driver assistance system.

Dubbed FSD Beta 10.69.2, this software update gives Tesla cars capabilities like traffic and stop-sign control, auto lane change and auto park.

"You will get access to a suite of more advanced driver-assistance features, designed to provide more active guidance and automatic driving under your active supervision," the carmaker says on the website dedicated to FSD.

(Full Self-Driving is different from Enhanced Autopilot, a basic system also offered by Tesla.)

"FSD Beta 10.69 started rolling out to Tesla owners last night," Musk posted on Twitter on Aug. 21. "This build is a big step forward! 10.69.1 probably end of week with wider release. 1069.2 in a few weeks should be good enough to provide to all FSD Beta participants."

The tech mogul took advantage of this software update to increase the price of FSD, which now will cost $15,000 in North America, up 25% from $12,000 previously..

This price increase is effective Sept. 5. It won't affect any orders made before that date, Musk said.

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The FSD price hike comes as Tesla, like other automakers, has lifted the prices of its cars to pass on soaring costs to consumers.

This decision also suggests that the billionaire has confidence that Tesla customers will believe that the new price appropriately reflects the technological innovations in the latest build.

To be sure, FSD does not make Tesla cars self-driving: "All Tesla cars require active driver supervision and are not autonomous," the automaker warnson its website. Moreover Tesla has taken many precautions as it deploys this new update of the system.

"There are many major code changes, so this will be an extra cautious rollout," Musk said on Aug. 19. "Releasing on 8/20 to ~1000 Tesla owners, then 10.69.1 next week to accommodate feedback & release to ~10k customers, then 10.69.2 week after & release to rest of FSD Beta."

The vehicle manufacturer recently said that more than 100,000 Tesla owners have subscribed to FSD Beta.

FSD Beta members are required to provide feedback to Tesla when they encounter a problem. This is intended to allow Tesla to make the necessary adjustments and improve the technology.

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"Were still tracking very much to have widespread deployment of FSD Beta this year in North America. So I should say, basically FSD will be available to anyone who requests it by the end of this year," Musk said during the annual meeting on Aug. 4.

The price increase comes as Autopilot, the generic name of Tesla's driver-assistance systems, is the subject of a cascade of investigations by regulators.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating almost 40 crashes involving automated driving systems since 2016. Of those, more than 30 involved Teslas, including 11 fatal crashes that have killed a total of 15 people.

Last month, the agency began probing a fatal pedestrian crash in California involving a Tesla Model 3 and launched an investigation into an accident that killed two occupants of a 2015 Tesla Model S along Interstate 75 in Florida, a person familiar with the matter told TheStreet on July 11.

In June, the federal agency released data from automakers and tech companies showing nearly 400 crashes over a 10-month period involving vehicles with partly automated driver-assist systems, including 273 with Teslas.

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A Risky $3.3 Billion Bet on the Fall of Tesla and Elon Musk – TheStreet

Posted: at 12:43 am

Elon Musk does not like investors and financiers to bet on Tesla's stock-market collapse.

Last May, the richest man in the world attacked Bill Gates, who formerly was the richest man in the world, because the Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder had a short position of $500 million against Tesla (TSLA) . Selling stock short is a bet that the price will drop.

"Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla the company doing the most to solve climate change," Musk recently wrote to Gates. It was the end of a discussion the two billionaires were having about working together for common causes.

The mogul later accompanied his criticism with an unflattering and cruel tweet aimed at Gates.

For the moment, Tesla is acclaimed by investors, since the maker of the Model 3 and Model S sedans is the world's sixth largest company by market value. Its market capitalization at last check was $901 billion. That gives Musk the last word.

But this position hasn'tprevented financiers from betting against him and Tesla.The latest: Scott Burg, chief investment officer of Deer Park Road Management, Steamboat Springs, Colo.

According to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Burg acquired put options on 4,786,400 Tesla shares as of June 30.The value of these derivative instruments was $3.3 billion as of June 30.

A put option grants the holder the right but not the obligation to sell shares of an underlying security on or before a specific date at a particular price. When an investor acquires a put option, they are bearish about the future performance of the underlying stock.

Tesla shares ended the second quarter at $673.42; at last check, they're trading around $863. Tesla shares have gained 28% since the end of the second quarter. This means Burg's bet hasn't paid off, at least not yet.

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The financier recently deleted his Twitter account after being contacted by Bloomberg News about this latest bet. The bet is not surprising, however, as Burg has been predicting the downfall of Tesla and Musk for many years now.

"Now Tesla will be squashed like a bug," the financierpredicted on Dec. 22, 2020.

Prior to deleting his account, Burg regularly posted messages on Twitter using the hashtag #TSLAQ. This symbol is used on social media by the most extreme critics of Musk and Tesla. They are convinced that the manufacturer of electric vehicles will go bankrupt. (The "Q" until 2016 was placed at the end of a Nasdaq stock symbol to indicate that the company had filed under the bankruptcy laws, according to Investopedia.)

"Do you know what a death spiral is? Coming," Burg tweeted on May 20, according to records kept by Tesla fans on the platform. That day Tesla shares had fallen more than 6%.

Deer Park RoadManagement specializes in distressed-credit opportunities. Early in August Deer Park's founder and CEO, Michael Craig-Scheckman, and Burg, who is managing partner and chief investment officer, held a conference call to discuss the Credit Cycle Rotation and Distressed Credit Opportunities, according to a post from the company's official Twitter account.

Burg's bet is surprising because Tesla dominates the EV market and almost all automakers want to develop electric models. The company is also ahead in autonomous vehicles and has an extremely busy roadmap for the next two years, notably with the launch of the highly anticipated Cybertruck, a futuristic pickup/truck.

The financier is not the first to make a huge bet against Tesla. Hedge-fund heavyweight David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital has paid a serious price. Musk literally had shorts delivered to Einhorn in 2018, when Tesla was on the brink of the financial abyss.

"I want to thank @elonmusk for the shorts," Einhorn posted on Twitter on August 2018 with a photo of the shorts. "He is a man of his word! They did come with some manufacturing defects. #tesla."

"Put them on & post a selfie," Musk commented.

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Elon Musk and America’s Highest Paid Bosses’ Salaries Revealed – Best Life

Posted: at 12:43 am

For the fourth straight year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the highest paid CEO in America. This week, Bloomberg unveiled a list of the top paid CEOs in the country, with the controversial boss still on top. According to the publication, while 9-figure salaries used to be a rarity, they are becoming the norm in corporate America with over 30 public-company executives with contracts topping $100 million in value at the end of fiscal 2021. "The top dozen packages all surpassed $200 million. A couple shot into the billions," they maintain. Who else made the top six list? Keep reading to find out.

The highest placed female CEO in the country is Sue Nabi of the beauty brand, Coty. According to Bloomberg she tallied up a cool $283 million in 2021. "Nabi is one of the beauty industry's leading founder talents: a hugely respected business leader with an outstanding track record. In order to attract a true entrepreneur like her, Coty needed to have an enticing equity scheme," the company stated about the top-earning beauty boss. By 2023, she will own about 3% of the company thanks to shares.

Tom Siebel, founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, an artificial intelligence software platform and applications company, is the fifth highest paid CEO. According to Bloomberg, the billionaire netted $343 million.

Starting your own automobile company after working for the competition pays off. Peter Rawlinson, a former employee of Musk's Tesla, also scored big in 2021 after unveiling their first car, Dream Edition. The CEO/CTO of California-based Lucid Motors earned $575 million.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

It is zero surprise that Apple CEO Tim Cook made the top list, seeing as though he helms the most valuable company in the world. According to Bloomberg, Cook was paid a whopping $853 million in 2021.

Only two men were part of the billionaire salary boys club in 2021. 39-year-old Robert Scaringe, CEO of Rivian Automotive, yet to officially release their first electric-powered SUV to the market, made $2.3 billion last year.

Unsurprisingly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was paid more than any other CEO on the planet and made nearly 5 times as much as anyone else. According to Bloomberg his salary topped $10 billion in 2021, primarily due to hefty stock options.

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Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order imposed on Lincolnshire car wash owners – Forecourt Trader

Posted: at 12:42 am

Lincoln Magistrates Court has handed the owners of a car wash a Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order (STRO) lasting for seven years.

The hearing followed a joint investigation by Lincolnshire Police and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), and it is the second STRO served on a car wash business in Lincolnshire in recent months.

Shorsh Ismail Hashmi, aged 34, and Humar Hamadamin Mustafa, aged 36, both of Mill Road in Boston, must follow the conditions set out in the order or they face a jail term.

The order, given to the men on August 10, relates to Diamond Hand Car Wash, High Green, Swineshead, Boston.

The officer in charge of the investigation, PC Tamzin Hurley-Roe, said: This is the culmination of a lot of hard work, and we are very grateful to our partners whose support and assistance was paramount to securing Lincolnshires second STRO. Its a privilege to work together to make a difference for people and make our county a safer place for them.

The car wash has been attended by agencies a number of times and on four occasions, a total of five people have been found working who had no permission to work in the UK due to their immigration status.

These were all vulnerable people with no money, no way to fund their existence and suspected to have been sleeping on site at the car wash. People have been working long hours for little or no wages and not able to provide convincing accounts as to how they have come to be at the car wash.

They would be very unlikely to ask for any help from any authorities due to their status and are in a very vulnerable position. Despite repeated engagement the working practices have not changed, and they continued to exploit workers. Several of the legitimate workers on site also disclosed that they were being paid below minimum wage.

Boston area inspector Colin Clarkson said: The message across the county is strong and clear. Slavery and trafficking will not be tolerated. This order is a promising step forward in protecting vulnerable people from potential exploitation and a deterrent to anyone who thinks they are above the law. This is also an opportunity to highlight the issue. Sadly, exploitation happens here as it does across the UK, and we would encourage anyone who suspects that workers are being exploited to be their voice and report it.

GLAA investigating officer Dale Walker said: We have now worked closely with Lincolnshire Police on securing Slavery and Trafficking Risk Orders at two hand car washes in Lincolnshire in recent months.

The orders are crucial in protecting vulnerable workers from exploitation and acting as a deterrent to criminal behaviour by imposing strict restrictions on those we suspect are at risk of committing slavery or trafficking offences.

We will actively police the order and will not hesitate to take further action if we identify any breaches.

The order comes as a result of a wider piece of work in Lincolnshire. As well as the GLAA, Trading Standards and Immigration Enforcement also joined us in visits to high-risk sector businesses such as car washes and nail bars to engage with potentially vulnerable workers. The work is also supported by Boston Borough Council and Lincs Fire and Rescue.

The court was satisfied that the defendants acted in a way which means that there is a risk they will commit a slavery or human trafficking offence and that the order was necessary for the purpose of protecting people from physical or psychological harm.

The order specifies that the two named defendants must abide by the following:

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Opinion | The Tide Is Turning: US Congress Finally Considers a National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights – Common Dreams

Posted: at 12:42 am

$71,610.03: the back wages, interest, and civil penalties paid to a live-in domestic worker by their negligent employer in Seattle. In July, King5 News reported, the city's Office of Labor Standards orchestrated the employer's settlementredress for their failure to pay minimum wage, provide overtime pay, and track payment.

The numbers speak for themselves: domestic workers deserve sweeping protections beyond uneven state-level policies.

"I would encourage other domestic workers to come forward and not to be afraid if they believe that the contracts and the form of payment are not being fulfilled according to the work that is done," the anonymous domestic worker shared in the wake of her repayment.

In 2018, exactly three years prior, Seattle was the first city in the nation to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. The ordinance instated a host of protections for domestic workers (defined as both employees and independent contractors, "who provide paid services to an individual or household in a private home as a nanny, house cleaner, home care worker, gardener, cook, and/or household manager"): entitlement to Seattle's minimum wage, fair breaks during the workday, and written agreements outlining their employment.

Seattle also created a Domestic Workers Standards Boardcomposed of employees, employers, and community representativeswith investigatory and recommendation power through the city's Office of Labor Standards. Because of the bill, that $71,610.03 ended up in the right hands.

Throughout the last decade, Domestic Bill of Rights legislation has proliferated in capitals and city halls10 states (mostly governed by Democrats) and 2 municipalities (Seattle and Philadelphia) boast these more robust worker protections. And they've paid off: a 2021 National Domestic Workers Alliance survey revealed that workers in states with Bill of Rights protections "report overall working conditions that are better than those reported by workers who live in states without a Bill of Rights."

Still, the vast majority of domestic workers are under-protected. The 2.2 million estimated domestic workers in this countryover 90 percent of whom are women and a strong majority of whom are women of colorearned an unlivable median hourly wage of $12.01 in 2019.

While earning far too little, unconscionable percentages of these workers reported feeling unsafe at work (25 percent), did not receive breaks during working hours (36 percent), did not receive sick days (82 percent), did not have written agreements from their employers (84 percent), did not receive partial pay for late cancellation (81 percent), and did not receive pay for employers' cancellations after arriving to work (76 percent).

The numbers speak for themselves: domestic workers deserve sweeping protections beyond uneven state-level policies. As such, legislators recently revitalized their push for a National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Originally introduced in 2019 by then-Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) along with Representative Jayapal (D-WA) in the House, Gillibrand and Jayapal reintroduced the bill with Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) in 2021 as Democrats lead across government.

On July 28th, 2022, the House Education and Labor Committee held a historic hearing on the legislation: "Essential but Undervalued: Examining Workplace Protections for Domestic Workers."

The event, said National Domestic Workers Alliance Executive Director Jenn Stowe, was the "culmination of years of organizing and fighting for domestic workers and women of color across the country, for the last 15 years."

The National Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights consists of three key components: including domestic workers in commonplace labor rights and protections, from which they've been long excluded; codifying new workplace rights and benefits, specific to domestic work; and bolstering capacity to enforce and implement the new law.

In other words, a Bill of Rights would not just rightfully classify care work as valued work, worthy of protectionit would recognize caregivers' distinctive policy needs across state borders.

Through the legislation, domestic workers would gain access to paid overtime and sick days. They could expect a fair, safe standard of working conditions, or recourse for poor ones. They could expect written agreements and fair scheduling to guarantee and stabilize their access to work. And the Department of Labor, along with a newly commissioned national Standards Boardcomposed in part by domestic workers themselveswould provide oversight and avenues for public accountability.

Bill of Rights-favoring panelists at the hearing included National Domestic Workers Alliance's president, Ai-jen Poo, along with C. Nicole Mason of the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) and a member of Seattle's Domestic Workers Standards Board, Dana Barrett.

A former employer of domestic labor, Barrett advocates for Bill of Rights legislation "to recognize the clear stake that I have in creating a fair and dignified system of care." Fair workplace standards and wages, Barrett argued beforeCongress, "helped establish fair and reasonable employment relationships" by eliminating ambiguity. "Just bringing recognition to employers that home is a workplace helps create a better one."

Panelists adamantly emphasized that racism and marginalization created domestic workers' present precarity.

Domestic workers have borne "a long history of exclusion from foundational labor laws, rooted in the legacy of slavery in America," testified Ai-jen Poo. "This workplace is hidden, isolated behind closed doors and in private homes."

While hammering out the details of the New Deal's signature inequality-alleviating legislation, the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, Southern lawmakers fought for the exclusion of workers in the domestic and agricultural sectorsoverwhelmingly people of color. These labor reforms, and others throughout the mid-20th century, directly catalyzed America's lowest rates of inequalityyet persistently left millions of working Americans out in the cold.

In a rapidly aging nation, the demand for care work is skyrocketing, and cannot be "automated or outsourced," said Poo in Congress. Higher workplace standards and protections, she argued, will bolster quality of care and "help secure and also attract a strong workforce for the future."

This Bill of Rights could be a similar kind of forward-looking liberty document for millions of American women of color as our first, supposedly universal version. "We see it as a statement of our collective values as Americans, a statement on how we respect all working people, regardless of whether they work in an office or in a home," wrote Harris, Jayapal, and Poo in a 2018 op-ed for CNN.

Of course, the Bill of Rights is one way to invest in care. In the New York Times, Poo explained how workforce support is just one element of solving our caring crisis: the country should "holistically" invest in care at a scale akin to infrastructure. We need to raise workers' wages and strengthen their protectionswhile also investing in Medicaid home and community-based services, child care subsidies, affordable healthcare, retirement benefits, and paid leave.

This legislative session, it's unlikely that Bill of Rights-style protections and pursuant budget appropriations will make their way to President Biden's deskinvestments in care were all too absent from this summer's Inflation Reduction Act, and Republican Committee members spent the hearing fear mongering about inflation, debt, religious descrimination, and how the legislation might undermine the ability to "make employees part of the family."

But state by state, the tide is turning. Bills of Rights are up for passage in New Jersey and Washington, DC. And Seattle is going further with its commitment to domestic workers, allocating a quarter of a million dollars for outreach to inform workers of their rightsfacilitating justice as delivered by the settlement this summer.

"Firstly, it was my ignorance of the laws and rights that I had," said the domestic worker in Seattle. "But through friends who supported me to do it, I lost my fear and filed the complaint. It was worth the risk and a favorable result was given."

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Opinion | The Tide Is Turning: US Congress Finally Considers a National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights - Common Dreams

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