In a
recent report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concludes
that the Department of Labor’s Wage-Hour Division (WHD)
is inadequately investigating complaints.
GAO developed a number of case studies
by obtaining and analyzing data from WHD for over 70,000 closed case files from
fiscal years 2005 to 2007. GAO then
reviewed WHD documents and obtained information from publicly available sources
in order to determine facts about the employers that had complaints filed
against them. The Office plans to
continue its work in this area to determine if the identified case studies are
indicative of systematic problems in WHD.
Examples
of inadequate WHD responses identified in the study include rejection of
complaints, failure to adequately investigate complaints, and/or delay in
investigations. GAO reports that in some
cases, by the time a complaint was assigned to an investigator, the statute of
limitations for assessing back wages was close to expiring.
The GAO
conclusion:
Case studies show that WHD inadequately investigated complaints from low-wage and minimum wage workers alleging that employers failed to pay the federal minimum wage, required overtime, and failed to issue a last paycheck. In the majority of the case studies, low-wage complainants were advised of their option to hire an attorney after WHD determined no action would be taken on their behalf.
Read the
rest of the report here.
workplacehorizons.com
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