Skip to main content

Department of Labor Extends PAID Program An Additional Six Months


Earlier this year, I made note of the Department of Labor’s Payroll Audit Independent Determination (‘PAID’) program which would allow employers to self report and remedy wage and hour violations without penalty, so long as employers got their ‘aggrieved’ employees their owed back pay and the employer was not a prior offender.  The PAID program went into effect April 3rd and was set to be in place for approximately six months before the Department of Labor would review the program to determine whether to extend, modify, or terminate it completely.  Critics quickly argued it was nothing more than a ‘get out of jail free’ card for some employers that failed to actually curtail wage and hour violators.  However, advocates of the PAID program pointed out that it remedied unpaid wage issues without an extended delay and did not require employees to shoulder legal fees to fight for the wages they were owed.

On Tuesday, the Department of Labor announced it would extend the PAID program for an additional six months.  Readers are likely wondering whether the program has achieved its desired impact.  From internal reports, it appears that in the initial six months of the program, approximately nine employees participated with unpaid wages totaling more than $500,000.00.  While the Department of Labor had not set any specific benchmarks for what would/would not be considered a success for the program, these initial numbers seem promising.  Of course, critics will likely still argue that while these apparent numbers are a good start, the PAID program still fails to get at the root of the problem when it comes to employers not paying their employees the full wages due and owing.  Regardless, it will be interesting to see what numbers are reported after the close of this next six month period.


For additional information:  https://www.allongeorgia.com/national-news/u-s-depart-of-labor-announces-record-304m-in-recovered-wages-for-workers-in-fiscal-year-2018/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more