labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Beginning February 1, 2009, every New York employer must display a poster of the New York Correction Law related to convictions.

On August 5, 2008, New York Governor David Paterson signed legislation that requires employers to post a copy of Article 23 A of the correction law relating to the employment of persons with a criminal conviction.

Under the new law, which takes effect February 1, 2009, a poster of (more…)

Every New York employer needs to understand that in 2007 a number of changes to the labor laws were made. In 2007, for the first time in ten years, the federal minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $5.85 per hour as a result of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. At least ten states increased their state minimum wage on the same day.

Many labor law poster changes throughout the nation related to minimum wage increases this year, or next year. West Virginia and Illinois will increase their minimum wages on July 1, 2008. Illinois’s current minimum will jump from $7.50 to $7.75, and West Virginia’s will go up from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour.

On July 24, 2008, the new federal minimum wage of $6.55 will be introduced. States like Texas, Nebraska and others that tie their state minimum wage to the federal minimum wage will bump up their state minimum wage.

It is crucial for every employer in the state to update their New York labor law posters for 2008.

The New York  Labor Law Posters that every employer is required to display are:

• Right-to-Know
• Clean Indoor Air Act
• Workers’ Compensation
• Unemployment Insurance
• Disability Benefits
• Discrimination Notice
• Time Off to Vote Notice
• Minimum Wage
• Child Labor

In addition, employers are required to display the following posters by federal law:

• Employee Polygraph Protection Act USERRA - Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
• Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law
• Federal Minimum Wage
• Family and Medical Leave Act
• OSHA-Job Safety & Health Protection

Several states including Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and others established laws that provide an annual cost-of-living increase for the state minimum wage. States often tie this increase to the Consumer Price Index for urban and clerical workers. Florida just recently passed such a law and will apply their first “cost of living” raise on January 1, 2008, bumping their current wage from $6.65 to $6.79 per hour.

During the 2007, several other states, including Utah, Washington, Oregon, and West Virginia increased their state minimum wage. Both state and federal law require that every employer prominently display the posters in an area where they can been seen by every employee. Popular locations are a bulletin board, near the time clock or in the break room.

2007 also saw other changes that required employers to update their labor law posters. Employers in Ohio had to post new no-smoking signs at all entrances as a result of the establishment of tough new ban on smoking in the workplace.

Washington, Oregon, Texas and several other states raised their state minimum wages in 2007.

The rank of highest state minimum wage goes to Washington at $8.07 as of January 1, 2008. California and Massachusetts aren’t far behind each with $8.00 per hour. Oregon’s wage ranks in the top five with $7.95 per hour.

There’s not much difference among the state minimum wages in the top five, but the difference across the country is amazing. The state minimum wage in Kansas hasn’t budged since the 1980s, and ranks as the lowest at $2.65.

As a result of these changes, companies need to take the time to update their labor law posters by the end of this year. Failure to update the posters with the new information can result in a fine for the employer.

The most common reason for employers to update posters includes statute changes, especially to minimum wage laws. In just the past few months, employers in New Hampshire, Nevada and Maine have updated their labor law posters as the state minimum wages changed. The most recent increase was on October 1, 2007 when the New Hampshire minimum wage increased to $6.50 per hour.

Five Long Island, New York restaurants that are jointly operated were ordered to pay almost $1 million in overtime and back wages to employees, under federal Department of Labor lawsuits.

Seven company officers have been ordered to pay $966,046 in overtime, plus a penalty of $14,773 to resolve the five lawsuits.

“The department has made an intensive effort to protect low wage workers who may not know their legal rights under the federal labor laws,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “In this case, we have secured nearly $1 million for 192 workers who were not being paid all the wages they had earned.”

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division district office in Westbury, based on an anonymous tip, revealed that low-wage workers at the restaurants were being paid less than the federal minimum wage. In addition, the employees were often required to work long hours, without being paid overtime. The restaurants also failed to keep adequate records of the hours that employees worked.

Sources close to the case speculate that at least some of the payments went to servers who were paid less than the minimum wage, even during times when they earned little or no tips. Servers must be paid the minimum wage if their salary plus tips is less than the federal minimum. In addition, they must be paid time-and-one-half for overtime hours.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed five separate suits in the case, against Ital Pizza Corp. of Merrick, New York, Mister Gold Inc. of Plainview, New York, Millennium Foods Ltd. Of Westbury, New York, Tremezzo LLC of East Meadow New York and Nocera Restaurant Inc. of New Hyde Park New York. Individuals named in the suits include Anthony Branchinelli, Louis Branchinelli, Michael D’Abruzzo, Mauro Gallo, Fortunato Nicotra, Marco Nicotra and Franco Giambanco.

All the officers denied that they had violated any laws, but agreed to the settlement and back pay for employees.

The total payments included $164,810 to 34 employees of Ital Pizza Corp., $243,561 to 50 employees of Mister Gold Inc., $204,812 to 50 employees of Millennium Foods, $199,253 to 44 employees of Nocera Restaurant Inc. and $153,610 to 29 employees of Tremezzo LLC.

If the defendants fail to make any payments, the court will appoint a receiver with power to seize and liquidate the defendants’ assets to satisfy the back wage payment order. The defendants must orally advise employees, in English and Spanish, of their rights under the FLSA, the terms of the judgments and their right to engage in protected activities without fear of retaliation.

These employers, like all employers in the U.S. are obligated to prominently post federal and state minimum wage posters where they can be seen by every employee.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) requires that employees be paid at least the minimum wage. Since July 24, 2007 the federal minimum wage is $5.85 per hour. In addition, the FLSA requires that employees who work more than 40 hours in one week be paid one-and-one half their usual rate for each hour in excess of 40. The law also requires that employers keep accurate payroll records to verify their payment practices.

This is just the most recent effort by the U.S. DOL to force employers to abide by the minimum wage laws.

In late July, the U.S. Department of Labor forced Desert Plastering, Inc., a Las Vegas Nevada firm, to pay nearly $1.2 million in back pay to 1060 employees. The feds found that Desert Plastering had not paid required overtime to lathers, finishers, plasterers and estimators who worked up to 58 hours per week.

In early July, the U.S. Department of Labor forced 107 subcontractors of KBR, Inc. of Virginia to pay some $1.5 million in back wages and benefits for up to 2,600 workers who participated in the Hurricane Katrina recovery project. The construction workers were involved in repairs to the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport Mississippi or the Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.

Earlier this year, under a voluntary agreement to prevent a federal suit, Wal-Mart, Inc. agreed to pay $33 million in unpaid overtime wages to 86,680 employees throughout the nation. An internal audit revealed that the company had incorrectly classified some employees as “salary-exempt” when in fact they were entitled to overtime pay.

While it may not seem like a hazard for the workplace, influenza – flu, for short – can take a serious turn.

A recent New York worker safety alert warns of the dangers in store if, instead of the usual flu outbreak, we were faced with a flu pandemic.

A pandemic could follow the emergence of a new strain of flu. When that happens, there is no immunity. The disease then spreads rapidly worldwide, from person to person, while scientists are forced to spend months developing a new vaccine.

It sounds like fantasy, but the possibility is a real one, even though no such strain of flu exists now. There is no pandemic raging in the world at the present time. Nevertheless, says the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), in one of the more serious scenarios, a pandemic could result in disaster – a worldwide economy in turmoil, society in disarray, and high death rates.  Of course, such a scenario is not the inevitable result of the outbreak of a new strain. It might result merely in a flu season that was more severe than usual.

The common flu shows up each fall and winter, and is called “seasonal flu.” These bouts of influenza are usually self-limiting because most people either already have, or soon develop, an immunity. It’s usually life-threatening only to selected portions of the population – those with immune system problems, the aged, and infants.

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 killed 25 million people in just 25 weeks. Even the AIDS virus, by comparison, has resulted in the deaths of 25 million people in 25 years. During the 1918 pandemic, somewhere between 2.5% and 5% of the population of the world died, sometimes within hours of contracting the flu.

The latest concern is bird flu, or avian influenza. It starts in wild birds and spreads to the domestic ones – turkeys, chickens, and the like. In a few cases, one type of bird flu has spread to humans from infected birds. A mutated virus capable of spreading from person to person would result in a pandemic.

A New York OSHA report of a fatal forklift accident demonstrates again the need for training before operating the unstable machines.

Training is literally a matter of life and death. Every year, 100 employees on average die in forklift accidents and another 20,000 are hurt seriously, according to U.S. Labor Department figures. Most accidents can be traced directly back to the instability of the machines.

While forklifts may have four wheels, they don’t handle like cars. Automobiles have four points of stability. In the case of fork trucks, the weight is distributed over three points because the rear axle is a pivot. What’s gained in maneuverability is lost in stability. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), every forklift operator should remember at all times that the fork truck is not as stable as a car. That applies whether the forklift is carrying a load or not.

The death of a forklift operator in New York was a combination of lack of training and the inherent instability of fork trucks, OSHA found.

The driver was using the forklift to help a nearby business move a load from a tractor-trailer to a pickup truck on a Friday in July. After offloading materials into the pickup the driver backed up quickly and turned sharply at the same time. The forklift flipped over. The driver was thrown from the machine but crushed by its overhead cage.

OSHA investigated and found that the driver had not been trained. The forklift had no seatbelt or any other kind of restraint. The driver had left the forks raised while backing up. According to OSHA, that is an unsafe move. The forklifts should be lowered when backing up to avoid accidents like the one that took the life of this operator, according to the “Employer’s Guide to Material Handling Safety.”

Seatbelts will help prevent workers from being thrown from machines, according to OSHA.

All fatal accidents must be reported to OSHA within 24 hours.