February 24, 2025
From recovering unpaid wages to testifying in Annapolis, attorney Lucy Zhou’s advocacy has advanced workers’ rights across Maryland. Through her leadership and collaboration, she has held employers accountable for wage theft, influenced the roll-out of Maryland’s forthcoming paid family and medical leave program, and championed legislation that will strengthen worker protections. As she moves on to a new position, we wanted to say thank you and share some highlights from her time with the PJC’s Workplace Justice Project.
Lucy has represented workers in numerous wage theft cases to ensure that employers pay workers for their labor. In Aguilar et al. v. David E. Harvey Builders, Inc. et al., she represented eleven construction workers to secure a victory that held both the general contractor and subcontractor liable for paying the workers their wages plus double damages, almost $95,000 in total, for several weeks they worked without any compensation on the construction of a fitness facility in Riverdale, Maryland. The case culminated in a week-long federal trial, at which each of the workers provided compelling testimony and withstood forceful cross-examination from two sets of defendants. In the court’s decision, the judge relied on the workers’ testimony and adopted the PJC’s central legal arguments.
Lucy has also combined legislative advocacy and litigation to strengthen workers’ rights in Maryland and get justice for individual workers. After the Molly Maid cleaning company sued two former employees for allegedly breaching a noncompete agreement, the PJC represented the workers in getting the claims dismissed. Based on their experiences, Lucy advocated for a bill – now law – that expands low-wage workers’ protections against exploitative noncompete agreements. The two workers also joined with two other former coworkers to sue the cleaning company for unpaid wages, settling for $18,000 in unpaid wages and damages. All told, Lucy’s years-long advocacy led to the passage of a law to protect workers facing noncompete agreements and financial compensation for the workers’ unpaid wages.
The noncompete legislation is just one example of Lucy’s work to pass and implement laws that promote justice and equity in the workplace. For nearly two years, she has led the statewide Time to Care Coalition to advocate before the Maryland Department of Labor on worker-friendly regulations to implement the state’s new paid family and medical leave law, providing oral testimony and submitting written comments to the Department on dozens of occasions. She also testified in support of a bill that will help people who were overpaid unemployment benefits through no fault of their own by limiting how much the Maryland Department of Labor can recover, leaving unemployed Marylanders and their families enough money to survive through their tough economic times. And she advocated for a bill that creates Maryland’s first-ever legally enforceable requirement that hours worked, pay rates, pay period dates, deductions, and other basic information go on employees’ paystubs, preventing employers from hiding wage theft in inscrutable paystubs.
Debra Gardner, the PJC’s Legal Director and Interim Co-Executive Director, shared these thoughts: “Lucy’s lasting impact on the PJC’s clients and their communities is truly impressive. She brought her considerable skill, analytical judgment, and practical experience to her work and to the PJC as a place of employment. We’re sorry to see her go and wish her the very best in her next career adventure.”
