labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Does your region have an innovative plan to answer the challenge of training its workforce for the highly competitive, evolving global economy? Does that plan offer a way to bring employment to a region that has traditionally suffered from high jobless rates?

If so, it may have a chance at qualifying for a WIRED grant.

A Rhode Island unemployment grant would offer job opportunities for workers, particularly those in regions where high unemployment is the norm. If the grant became a reality, a Rhode Island region might join others in the nation that have garnered WIRED grants – regions like the Delaware Valley, northern California, northern Alabama, the Mississippi/Arkansas Delta region, and northern Indiana.

The U.S. Labor Department distributes the grants. It has announced the third “generation,” or round, of the grants. In the past, it has pumped $260 million into regions throughout the US. So far, 26 such regions of high unemployment have received grant money through WIRED.

WIRED is short for the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development Initiative. As the name suggests, it supports non-traditional methods of tackling high unemployment and bring regional labor pools “up to speed” with the skills needed to compete in the fast-growing global marketplace.

How does a region qualify for a grant? It’s not easy. First, however, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao sends letters out to each governor in the U.S., announcing the latest generation of grants. The governors in turn pick just 2 proposals out of those submitted by the regions of their states. Each region’s proposal must show other sources of funding, so the Labor Department can complement those funds.

Secretary Chao said, when announcing the earlier, second round of grants, that “Investing in area workforces through this collaborative approach will boost entire regions’ economic vitality.”

According to Emily Stover DeRocco, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, the third generation of the grants is designed to insure that local Workforce Investment Boards become “leaders of a strategic regional partnership.” That, in turn, “can drive economic transformations in regions across the country and improve employment and advancement opportunities for workers.”

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. reached a recent settlement agreement that will enable the retail giant to comply with both federal and Rhode Island overtime laws. At the heart of this agreement is the method in which the nation’s largest retailer calculated the overtime they paid employees.  The US Department of Labor maintains Wal-Mart did not correctly calculate overtime and did not properly pay overtime to employees.

The law is that overtime should be calculated at 1.5 times the employee’s usual salary rate for hours that exceed 40 during the week. This usual rate should include incentives and premiums. Wal-Mart didn’t include the incentives and premiums when calculating overtime.

For instance, if an employee’s base rate is $6.00 per hour but with premiums and incentives, he or she normally earns $7.00, then overtime should be calculated using $7.00 as the employee’s base rate. Because Wal-Mart violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the retailer needs to pay 86,680 employees back pay. These employees worked between February 1, 2002 and January 19, 2007.

According to Victoria A. Lipnic, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards, “This settlement provides $33 million in back wages, plus interest, to Wal-Mart workers, and the company has taken corrective action to prevent this from happening again.”

The agreement not only has Wal-Mart pay back wages buy also interest on those wages. The interest is included to be a deterrent again this transgression being committed again at some future time. The agreement was finalized by the Labor Department filing a complaint. This complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court and it alleges that the retailer committed violations of both state minimum wage laws and FLSA provisions.

A consent judgment was issued that ordered Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to pay employees for back wages. This consent judgment also enjoined the retailer from further violations. The court quickly approved the consent judgment. 

When it comes to having access to resources, Rhode Island workers with disabilities are about to get a boost. A new collaboration between a large human resource association and a federal agency should give workers greater access to jobs and information.

The alliance is between a federal agency, the US Office of Disability Employment Policy, known as ODEP, and a human resources association, the Society of Human Resource Managers, known as SHRM. These two organizations will be working together, conducting research, making it possible for disabled workers to have greater access to resources, and improving communications between federal agencies and industries.

As Rhode Island workers with disabilities probably know, some disabled workers may have problems finding jobs. The collaboration between ODEP and SHRM should help with recruiting and hiring of workers with disabilities by proving education, research, and access. The alliance will raise national awareness of the situation.

According to Roy Grizzard, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy,

“This alliance formalizes the relationship we have had with SHRM, benefiting SHRM as it serves its membership with the resources ODEP brings to the table and offering ODEP the opportunity for broader contact with human resource professionals.”

The Society for Human Resource Managers brings a lot of resources to partnership. With over 205,000 members and 550 chapters in 100 countries, this organization was formed in 1948. SHRM supplies professionals in the human resources field with necessary resources.

The US Office of Disability Employment Policy was formed in 2001 and works to help the disabled by identifying resources and setting policy. This alliance between ODEP and SHRM is a first and should help disabled workers in many ways by targeting areas such as training and education.

Of course, Rhode Island workers with disabilities will retain access to all the services they currently receive through the Rhode Island Department of Labor. This alliance will provide disabled workers with access to additional resources and opportunities. 

In recent years, Rhode Island workers with disabilities and disabled workers nationwide have seen job opportunities improve in recent years. But they still remain an untapped source of valuable talent.

A new alliance has been formed to tackle that problem. It’s an alliance of the largest affiliation of human resource managers worldwide and a government agency created in the 21^st century to provide new opportunities for the new millennium. Together, the two groups should reach out to this untapped talent pool with technical help, education, outreach, and training.

The public agency is the Office of Disability Employment policy, otherwise known as ODEP. The association is the Society of Human Resource Managers, or SHRM.

“This alliance formalizes the relationship we have had with SHRM,” says Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy Roy Grizzard, “benefiting SHRM as it serves its membership with the resources ODEP brings to the table and offering ODEP the opportunity for broader contact with human resource professionals.”

The federal Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) is a Labor Department policy agency. It was formed with the purpose of making certain that people with disabilities are fully involved in the 21^st century workforce. It was formed in 2001 when Elaine L. Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor, gave the authority and responsibility for the mission to the assistant secretary for disability employment policy.

The partnership should also begin a new national conversation about hiring persons with disabilities.

The Society of Human Resource Managers, or SHRM, dates back to 1948. With its 550 affiliated chapters and more than 205,000 members, it is considered the largest organization in the world dedicated to serving the needs of professionals in the human resource field. It carries out its mission by offering crucial and wide-ranging resources.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy, or ODEP, was formed in 2001 under Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. The plan was to guarantee that the talents of disabled persons would be fully used by the workforce of the new century.

Another exception to the rule is if your worker is age 14 or 15, and if they do not work for you for more than 24 hours in a week. Then you can pay them 75 percent of the regular Rhode Island minimum wage. Do the math, and that comes to $5.55 per hour.

Then there are exceptions of the Rhode Island minimum wage rule that allow employers to pay their employees the federal minimum wage, or whatever else they are legally allowed to pay below the regular Rhode Island minimum wage rate. These workers include those in the domestic service business that work in a private home.

Any worker involved in voluntary service or working for the federal government, or if they work at a charity of religious, non profit, or educational nature. That makes sense, by the way, since the very definition of volunteer means that you do not get paid at all. Also on this list of flat exceptions to the Rhode Island minimum wage rule are newspaper delivery people, golf caddies, shoe shine men, theater ushers, and outside sales men and women.

The law also makes exceptions for service employees at resort type places, that are open only in the summer or the winter months (depending on whether they are water attractions or skiing attractions). The rule is that the establishment can be open no more than six months out of the year. If so, they do not have to pay their wait staff the full minimum wage.

All of these exceptions, as far as I know, were there in the former Rhode Island minimum wage law, before all of the changes this past January, so the purpose here is to show that despite the change to the overall Rhode Island minimum wage rate, many things have still stayed the same in the state.