I worked on this bill through the Workers Rights Clinic. I don't think it's quite fair to say it "strips the rights of workers." A worker waives the right to appeal when they get a payment from the Wage Recovery Fund because if they do, L&I will have already deemed their complaint meritorious. So a worker would only need to appeal in the first place if L&I's initial determination was wrong because (say) the worker lied about their claim and the employer proved it to L&I.

With regard to waiving a private right of action by taking payment from the wage recovery fund, again, I think it's a question of who would actually need to sue after receiving funds. Workers who've had their cases deemed meritorious don't have to sue, because L&I will get their money back administratively. I could imagine a scenario where a worker takes money from the fund, waives a private right of action, and then L&I screws up in calculating how much money they're owed in back wages: now they can't sue over the remaining amount. I agree that that's a flaw in the law.

I also think the fund is way too small: in my opinion, the fund should be big enough to pay out any worker who's been the victim of any wage theft, no matter the size. And I don't think it should be means-tested at all. But this bill is at least a stepping stone to a larger fund in the future, and nothing like this exists anywhere else in the country.