We have labor laws in the United States because there have been businesses which have taken advantage of employees in the past. They get them into a situation where they can quit their job, and then they start screwing around with their paychecks. It happens all the time, and it happens a lot in larger corporations than you might think, as they try to finagle a way to cut their labor costs. One industry the regulators want to crack down on is the restaurant sector.
Why you ask? Well, it has to do with the IRS, and the failure of many waiters and waitresses, and those who collect tips from reporting their income, but it also has to do with restaurant owners counting those tips as part of their pay, and taking it off their minimum wage. In other words the waitresses and waiters are working for tips only at that point.
This doesn't just happen in the restaurant business, it's also happened in the car wash business and many other industries. The authorities don't like it, and yet they don't have the wherewithal to completely enforce things, and therefore they wait for complaints to start their investigations.
There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on June 17, 2011 by Julie Jargon which was titled "Restaurant Groups Sue Labor Department" which stated that "in April, the Labor Department amended the regulations In the Fair Labor Standards Act to state that restaurant owners now have to explain to each employee, in detail, the exact amount of tips that will be credited towards the minimum wage." And of course there will be an $1100 fine, as well as criminal penalties if the restaurants fail to do this, the new law started in May of 2011.
There is only one problem, the National Restaurant Association says that the Labor Department did not allow a 90 day period for the restaurant industry to make comments on the new law and now the labor department refuses to withdraw any part of the new rule or allow for a comment period which is typical of all new rule-making. Obviously, the article also noted that the restaurant industry has been hit hard do to increased commodity prices, and the struggling economy.
It is unfortunate, that the Federal Labor Department did not allow the restaurants a chance to comment on this rule-making session, and yet it is easily understood why. Nevertheless, arbitrary rule making without a full public comment period is enough to have corporate labor lawyers looking for answers. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
California Labor Laws and the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Movement What Happens If I Win My Employment Tribunal? New Labor Laws Don't Mean Much Until the Trial Lawyers Start Creating Case Law Children and Women Labor Law
0 comments:
Post a Comment