News, Blog & Cases
Monday, July 13, 2009
Workers Have a Friend in Obama
An article about President Obama's worker-friendly policies and priorities: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29268009/
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
An Ounce of Prevention . . .
The firm just finished a review of the wage and hour policies of a national restaurant chain looking to expand into Colorado. Although the firm generally represents employees victimized by employers who ignore the law, our experience in that area makes us uniquely qualified to audit pay practices before they become a lawsuit. If you are a restaurant owner and would like to ensure full legal compliance, please contact us.
U.S. Steps Up Wage and Hour Enforcement
According to this Wall Street Journal article, Mr. Obama’s new Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, is making good on her promise to reinvigorate the enforcement efforts of the United States Department of Labor. This is good news for employees.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Labor Agency is Failing Workers, Report Says
The United States Department of Labor is responsible for enforcing federal labor laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs employ minimum wages and overtime. A recent report by government auditors found that that DOL may mishandle as many as 90 percent (90 percent?!) of the cases brought to it for enforcement.
This is not a reflection on DOL investigator competence, rather it is an issue of resources. When DOL is not properly funded, it cannot hire a sufficient number of investigators, which leads to employee complaints dropping through the cracks. Fortunately, both state and federal wage and hour laws are designed to supplement government enforcement through the use of “private attorneys general.” This term refers to private lawyers who are encouraged to take and prosecute employee cases. Because the wage and hour laws provide that employers may have to pay the fees of private lawyers who bring and win employee cases, the laws create a financial incentive for private lawyers to vindicate employee rights thereby supplementing the efforts of DOL.
Read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/washington/25wage.html
This is not a reflection on DOL investigator competence, rather it is an issue of resources. When DOL is not properly funded, it cannot hire a sufficient number of investigators, which leads to employee complaints dropping through the cracks. Fortunately, both state and federal wage and hour laws are designed to supplement government enforcement through the use of “private attorneys general.” This term refers to private lawyers who are encouraged to take and prosecute employee cases. Because the wage and hour laws provide that employers may have to pay the fees of private lawyers who bring and win employee cases, the laws create a financial incentive for private lawyers to vindicate employee rights thereby supplementing the efforts of DOL.
Read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/washington/25wage.html
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