The workman is worthy of his hire,” the Bible tells us. But when that “hire,” wages for a hard day’s work, is not forthcoming, the state department that’s supposed to help may not be much help at all, according to recent reports from Raleigh’s News & Observer.
One of the tasks before the state Department of Labor, led by Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, is to go after employers who fail to pay their employees and collect the pay on their behalf. But for years, the labor department hasn’t pushed uncooperative companies hard enough to settle debts to their employees, the News & Observer reported.
The newspaper reviewed reports from nearly 50 cases in fiscal year 2014 and found that, in claims that involved 1,521 workers, roughly 40 percent of the workers didn’t receive their pay. The paper tallied $1 million in lost wages owed to 617 workers.
If a company owner pleaded poverty or refused to pay, state investigators nearly always gave up. If the employer simply ignored the labor department, the department closed the case, the News & Observer reported.
Jessica Hendricks, a social worker from Cary, spoke to the News & Observer about $3,000 she says is owed her by Byron Williams (not the columnist published by the Journal). He hired her to work for his mental health care company. She was one of six employees Williams’ company failed to pay.
An investigator from the labor department called and wrote to Williams but received no reply. The investigator heard that the company had shut down and visited what appeared to be an abandoned office. The labor department then dropped the case. It told Hendricks and the others that they could sue Williams on their own if they wanted.
“The labor board said there was nothing they could do about it, which is crazy,” Hendricks told the News & Observer.
Several other former employees spoke to the News & Observer about the despair they felt when the labor department failed to pursue their earnings. Some of them lost cars or apartments. Some had to resort to public assistance for food. Many of them earned low, hourly wages, not an ideal situation for someone invited to sue a former employer.
In the meantime, their former employers were free to start new businesses or contract with the state without being pursued by the labor department.
The department, which has legal staff available for such matters, must do right by workers. It can use restraining orders or company assets to leverage for wages. In states such as New York and Illinois, investigators have pursued criminal charges in cases of wage theft. Labor officials in Kentucky will pursue wages for at least a decade.
Berry blamed any fault on management problems that she says she’s resolving. That’s cold comfort to the workers whose pay was stolen.
The labor department needs to pick up the pace immediately.
