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What to Expect When Wage Hour Calls |
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Page 2 of 5
First, a comment regarding complaints and the person(s) making complaints: Wage Hour receives complaints from many different sources, including current employees, former employees, competitors, employee representatives, and other interested parties. Wage Hour has a policy of not disclosing the name(s) of the complainant unless the complaining party has given written permission for them to do so. Therefore, unless they are only looking at the pay practice related to a single employee, Wage Hour normally will not tell you if there is a complaint and will not identify the complaining party.
With respect to child labor investigations, they are typically scheduled for one of two reasons. (1) Each year they will target an industry, fast food restaurants or grocery stores for example, that has a history of employing minors contrary to the requirements of the Act. (2) They have received information that a minor was injured while working for the firm. A copy of each Workers Compensation Accident Report relating to the injury of a minor is forwarded to Wage Hour for review. If they have reason to believe the minor was employed in a prohibited activity, they will schedule an investigation.
In addition to the above reasons for investigations, each year Wage Hour selects a few industries to target for enforcement. They pick industries that have a history of non-compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and will investigate a large number of employers in the industry. A few years ago they selected the poultry processing industry and investigated approximately one-third of all processing plants in the country. As a result there is some litigation still pending in Alabama from an investigation that was completed in 1999. In recent years, they have looked at the health care industry, fast food establishments, and construction industry. Although some targeted activities are national, in most cases they vary from state to state. For example, during the past year there has been a concerted activity in Alabama that targeted grocery stores.
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Last Updated ( May 13, 2008 at 09:19 AM )
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