Tuesday morning musings for workplace watchers.
DOL Cites Service Industry|Congress Tackles Telework
Rebecca Rainey: The US Labor Department has been cracking down on compliance in the hospitality industry this month, closing a series of cases against restaurants that short changed their workers while also hosting a labor rights education event for service workers.
The agency has announced back wages and fines in at least six cases involving Fair Labor Standards Act and Family Medical Leave Act violations at restaurants since the start of May.
In one case, the owner of an Indiana-based diner agreed to allow a DOL representative to read its staff their rights under the law and post a notice of those rights after the agency discovered the owner had harassed employees who were participating in its investigation into an illegal tip pool.
As part of a May 13 consent order, Friendship Diner LLC also agreed to not retaliate against employees in any manner. The DOL found in February that the restaurant failed to pay proper minimum and overtime wages, as well as required workers to illegally hand over part of their tips to cover bussers’ pay.
On May 20, the DOL announced that three La Mojarra Loca restaurant locations in Las Vegas paid more than $150,000 in overtime back wages and damages to 33 employees after the agency found that the company paid workers a flat salary “regardless of how many hours they worked.”
In another instance, an operator of nine Arkansas restaurants was on the hook for more than $11,000 in back wages after it refused to reinstate a worker to an equivalent position when they returned from FMLA-protected leave, the DOL said on May 7.
And in the Northwest, the DOL reached a consent judgement with the owners of Little Big Burger restaurants on May 8, after finding that the company required employees at 14 of its locations in Oregon and Washington to share tips with managers, which is prohibited under the FLSA. As part of the agreement, the employers paid back $148,248 in tips that were illegally withheld and an equal amount in damages to nearly 600 workers.
Amid the enforcement spree, the DOL is also trying to put restaurant and waitstaff workers on notice about their rights under federal labor law. The agency’s Wage and Hour Division joined state labor officials in South Carolina last week to host a webinar covering the FLSA’s requirements for record keeping and tip pooling, among other protections.
The session was designed “to meet the food service industry’s unique needs in the hope that we can educate employers—including staffing agencies—on their legal responsibilities and help workers understand how we safeguard their wages and benefits,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Jamie Benefiel said in a statement.
Diego Areas Munhoz: Federal employees’ work accommodations have become yet another political football on Capitol Hill.
Telework and remote work options have spread across industries since the Covid-19 pandemic moved much of the workplace online. But some lawmakers in Congress are divided over how often federal workers should be able to work from home, while others are pushing for them to show up to the office every day.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs advanced legislation this month that sets up guidelines for federal workers seeking to telework. Sen. James Lankford’s (R-Okla.) Telework Reform Act (S.3015) would require workers to come into the office at least twice per biweekly pay period, and would increase remote work availability for law enforcement and military spouses who have to move often with their partner.
But while some see teleworking as an ingrained part of the workplace post-Covid, others in Congress are still resistant. Those lawmakers say they want more accountability for employees who may be slacking at their job.
A separate bill, introduced by the panel’s Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and would require more transparency from federal agencies on their teleworking policies, stalled after Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) introduced an amendment that would mandate agencies monitor workers’ productivity.
Romney said he’s skeptical of employees working outside of the office, and has introduced legislation with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that would cap telework at no more than 40% of the time in a worker’s pay period.
Peters told Bloomberg Law he’s working with Romney on the amendment’s language to avoid any privacy and civil rights concerns, and that he hopes to bring the bill up again at the committee’s next markup.
“We have to have proper guardrails around that, but it’s making sure there’s accountability. It’s done widely throughout the private sector. That’s what happens,” Peters said. “All the tech companies do it with their employees, so it’s certainly nothing out of the ordinary.”
Meanwhile in the House, Republicans have been even more bullish on bringing workers back to the office. During oversight hearings this year, both the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation’s former director Gordon Hartogensis and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su were slammed for their hybrid work policies.
Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (N.C.) subpoened Su over the Department of Labor’s return-to-office plan. Su handed over the requested documents, but Foxx said in a subsequent statement that she is still unsatisfied with the agency’s plan and that workers deserve “better than part time bureaucrats at DOL.”
DOL policy requires workers to come into the office five days every two weeks, more than what’s required under Lankford’s proposal.
“There are some folks that say ‘no more telework anymore’ and I just laugh and think—that’s not going to happen,” Lankford said in an interview. “I don’t see why we can’t do that as long as there’s a way to be able to optimize performance and we know that they’re actually producing at the level that needs to be done.”
We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers, please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.
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