Owed Unpaid Wages?

Information for workers owed unpaid wages.

Wage Theft

West Virginia Nursing Home Guilty of Rate Violations

The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (DOL) recently investigated a Charleston-based nursing home and rehabilitation company for allegedly violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  Specifically, the investigation revealed that the company failed to include six types of bonus payments in the employees’ regular rates of pay for purposes of determining overtime compensation.

The FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees overtime at time-and-a-half of their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek. As a result of the company excluding these bonus payments from the regular rate, the employees’ overtime rates ended up being lower than what they should have received under the FLSA.

As a result, the company has agreed to pay its employees back wages amounting to $61,840.00, as well as liquidated damages amounting to an additional $61,840.00.

 

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Rampant Wage Theft Uncovered in Garment Facilities Across the Country

In December of 2017, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) revealed that it had assessed $1.6 million in back wages and liquidated damages against Southland garment since the beginning of the year.

According to the DOL, violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) were found in 94 percent of 129 Wage and Hour Division investigations of the Southland garment factories. As a result of the investigations, the DOL found wages owed to 1,377 employees.

The DOL’s investigations uncovered that many employees were paid well below the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, with some receiving as low as $4.27 per hour.  Additionally, workers were often not paid in compliance with the FLSA’s overtime requirements, which requires that all non-exempt employees be paid at one and one half times their regular hourly rate for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a single work week. These violations also carry other civil penalties, which the DOL has enforced against Southland.

Ruben Rosalez of the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division commented that “[i]n addition to our outreach efforts in this industry, we continue our investigations in Southern California to ensure local garment employees receive their rightfully earned pay.  Unfortunately, we continue to find wage violations in nine out of every ten facilities we investigate.”

Rosalez also noted that manufacturers who fail to pay employees in compliance with the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime provisions have a negative impact on the industry by unfairly undercutting the competition.

 

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Are At-Home Call Center Employees Entitled to Overtime Wages?

To cut costs, many call center companies now employ agents to work from home. While this practice is perfectly legitimate, those telecommuting employees must still be paid at least the minimum wage, as well as overtime. This is mandated by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Unfortunately, some call centers and business process outsourcing companies are guilty of withholding wages and overtime pay from home-based telephone agents and representatives.

Employers often fail to pay their home-based telephone agents the required overtime wages. These employees often work before and after their shifts, causing them to work over forty (40) hours in one workweek. Employers are in violation of the law for not compensating these required “off the clock” tasks. This work can include time spent:

  • Booting up computers, connecting to networks, and logging in and out systems and programs
  • Making notes and completing paperwork before or after calls have been completed
  • Reading company memos and updates
  • Attending meetings and required training programs
  • Working through lunch breaks

In general, “hours worked” includes all time an employee must be on duty, including starting the computer to download work instructions, computer applications, and work-related emails. If you work at a call center and your employer has a policy of only paying you for time spent talking with customers, or if your employer refuses to count time you spend making notes or performing other computer work in between calls, you could have a claim for unpaid overtime. You should consult with an attorney knowledgeable about wage and hour laws as soon as possible to protect your legal rights.

 

 

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Human Resources Can Take Action To Mitigate Wage Theft

“Wage Theft” is the illegal practice – both intentional and unintentional – of not paying employees for their legally or contractually promised wages. Common forms of wage theft include violating minimum wage laws, not paying overtime, misclassifying employees, forcing workers to work off the clock, and much more. Wage theft takes place on all levels of the income ladder, but statistics indicate that lower-income immigrants, women, and Latin Americans get hit the hardest. According to the 2017 Wage Theft Report, nearly $50 billion dollars in wages are stolen annually nationwide by U.S. employers. That number is enough to provide 1.2 million people with employment and pay them $20 per hour. Undeniably, wage theft is a major issue nationwide. There are steps that can be taken by human resource professionals to help mitigate the problem.

The following suggestions can help an HR professional prevent wage theft within his/her company:

Increase Awareness: HR can educate management on the company’s wage and hour policies. They ought to be able to clarify the differences between a living wage and the legal minimum wage. More often than not, an employee receiving a living wage, the amount required to meet the basic costs of living, rather than the legally required minimum wage will have a higher morale and achieve a higher level of productivity. Additionally, federal, state, and local laws affecting your wage and hour policies are constantly changing. As a result, you’ll regularly want to review and update your policies and practices too. To be certain that changes and updates are effectively implemented, you want to regularly communicate this information with your employees, which brings us to the next suggestion.

Increase Communication: HR can and should encourage open communication. Articulated expectations are a sign of effective leadership. Provide employees with an opportunity to discuss concerns regarding wage and hour compliance. For example, by addressing issues and discussing time records, employees are less tempted to cheat because they will take fewer risks once they see that records are properly evaluated. Prove you care. Listen to the feedback of workers and work through any issues as they arise. One form of communication can include employee opinion surveys.

Audits: Provide audits to ensure all employees have proper employee position classification and are paid in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) classification. It’s important to know if a worker is a contractor, a regular employee, jointly employed, or an employee exempt from overtime. Document, document, document! Without proof of proper employee position classification analysis, you’ll place yourself at risk – a small violation can lead to serious problems and huge financial exposure. The best defense is fully detailed documentation of total and full compliance.

Reinforce Training: After a discussion or presentation on specific wage and hour policies and practices, print or email the presentation slides or notes in case anyone wants to look over the information again. Don’t present all the information in one training session. Instead, opt for regular meetings. Emphasize messaging through printed articles, company policies, or other accurate and relevant sources.

Monitor frequent requests for interns: If a particular department or division is requesting too many interns, make sure the individuals are not being misclassified and are being offered fair pay for the job they are performing.   

Speak Up: HR should encourage ethical employers to speak up about wage and hour issues and report any violations with wage and hour laws. Wage theft and payroll fraud undercut those who treat and pay workers fairly.

Human resources professionals have an enormous impact on your business. They can help establish employee performance, happiness, productivity, and retention. They also help protect your business from unnecessary risk by encouraging communication, defining pay structure, performing audits, reinforcing training, staying alert, and providing employers the appropriate legal liability exposures. Creating and implementing some basic HR advice can help protect your business from unnecessary wage theft risk.

 

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Temp Agency Investigated for Violating FLSA’s Overtime Provisions

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires time and a half to be paid for all hours worked over 40 in a week. All Temporaries Midwest, an employment placement agency for nursing homes, assisted living, and home health care based in Minneapolis, found this out the hard way.

The U.S. Department of Labor conducted an investigation into All Temporaries Midwest’s employment practices. The DOL alleged the company violated the FLSA when it failed to pay enough overtime to employees who worked more than 40 hours in a workweek.

According to federal investigators, All Temporaries Midwest would pay workers time and a half when they exceeded 40 hours in a week, but only up to 47 hours. Once an employee reached the 47 hour mark, the pay reverted to straight time.

After seeing the investigation findings, All Temporaries Midwest chose to settle the dispute. The company will pay 92 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants $401,384.00 in back wages and penalties. Moving forward, All Temporaries Midwest agreed to pay the proper amount of overtime.

 

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