"What do I need a risk management team for?" I hear you say. "I can get by with Google, a pamphlet from the Department of Labor, and after all, my brother-in-law-or-some-other is a lawyer..."
Compliance isn't that easy. How not-easy is it, you ask? The Department of Labor has lost $7 million to a wage and hour complaint filed by a union of government employees:
...Click the link below to read more.
Compliance isn't that easy. How not-easy is it, you ask? The Department of Labor has lost $7 million to a wage and hour complaint filed by a union of government employees:
...Click the link below to read more.
"The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 12, which represents thousands of workers in the Washington, DC area, announced that it has settled its Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Overtime grievance against the Department of Labor for $7 million. In 2006, the Union filed a collective action type grievance on behalf of the entire bargaining unit. The essence of the action was that employees were being forced to work overtime without being properly compensated. This included the failure to provide compensation for “off the clock” work, also known as suffer or permit overtime for FLSA covered employees and “induced overtime” for others. The settlement covers both past and current employees."
How can you be expected to comply with Department of Labor laws and regulations when the armada of lawyers, accountants, and other government employees tasked with enforcing those very laws can't?
Labor and employment law is not something you can just Google your way out of. After a law school concentration in labor and employment law, a tour of duty at the Department of Labor, and years in the world of general counsel, I can tell you that the compliance regime is huge, complicated, bottomless, ever-changing, and many times your decision will come down to a probabilistic wager on the personal disposition of whichever EEOC or DoL decision-maker, or judge, winds up hearing the grievance that has been brought against you.
Don't rely on your wits and your Google-fu. Better yet, don't get to the crisis point in the first place. Build a better and smarter HR team today. The Department of Labor itself can tell you that the only winning move with discrimination, wage and hour complaints, and any of the other million things the Department of Labor enforces is not to play, and the stakes can be a lot higher than even the $7 million that DoL itself has had to pay this month.
How can you be expected to comply with Department of Labor laws and regulations when the armada of lawyers, accountants, and other government employees tasked with enforcing those very laws can't?
Labor and employment law is not something you can just Google your way out of. After a law school concentration in labor and employment law, a tour of duty at the Department of Labor, and years in the world of general counsel, I can tell you that the compliance regime is huge, complicated, bottomless, ever-changing, and many times your decision will come down to a probabilistic wager on the personal disposition of whichever EEOC or DoL decision-maker, or judge, winds up hearing the grievance that has been brought against you.
Don't rely on your wits and your Google-fu. Better yet, don't get to the crisis point in the first place. Build a better and smarter HR team today. The Department of Labor itself can tell you that the only winning move with discrimination, wage and hour complaints, and any of the other million things the Department of Labor enforces is not to play, and the stakes can be a lot higher than even the $7 million that DoL itself has had to pay this month.
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