Caught on Tape: Government Ineptitude-Stolen Wages, Stolen Hopes; Gov't Lets Down U.S. Workers, Prob

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

Every year, bosses steal what could be billions in wages from their workers – and the federal government has largely failed to protect employees from such abuse, an undercover investigation has found.

The government agency that's supposed to protect those American workers, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, is a miserable failure, concludes the Government Accountability Office.

Since last July, GAO investigators have been secretly testing the division, reporting fictional employer malfeasance and tracking the government's failure to follow up on their complaints.

In Louisiana, Lynne Krause says her employer cheated her out of tens of thousands of dollars in overtime pay. But it took her six months just to get a federal investigator on the phone. And it was another six months before the Wage and Hour Division finally got her some -- but nowhere near all -- of the money she says she was owed.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7163805&page=1

[liberal N proud]

1. Do people not look a their pay checks?

Simple math would tell you if you were being screwed.

[Raston]

2. Captain Clueless strikes again

Of course people can tell if their paycheck is being shorted - where are they going to go in a depression? Are you familiar with the current unemployment rate?

People get laid off and told that if they sign a nondisclosure they'll get their last paycheck, which they never see. They get fired without cause and still denied unemployment because the employer told the employment office that they were fired -with- cause, and now it's a legal battle again. You, now unemployed, get to fight a corporation in court and demonstrate exactly how much they owe you to the penny, and your court case might be heard in a couple -years-.

This has been absolutely endemic of bush's failed system that focuses on the corporation. They've believed for eight years now that they can get away with anything, and they are -right-. The American worker has been getting creamed - not by corporations simply protecting their interests but by screwing their employees because they know they can't protect themselves.

Wake up - if you're not angry, you're not paying attention.

- Raston

[Tansy_Gold]

6. It happens even in good times.

And welcome to DU. :hi:

There are many many many ways for employers to screw their employees out of pay, with and/or without the employee's knowledge. I've worked in HR too many years, seen too many schemes. I've done my best to keep my employers honest, but it doesn't always work.


TG

[liberal N proud]

9. What does a depression and unemployment rate have to do with it?

Asking your employer to correct your check shouldn't be reason to fire someone.

It's not like asking for a raise or demanding a bonus.

[aquart]

11. Every time I have spoken up about a short paycheck, I've lost the job.

[Tempest]

3. They knew they were getting screwed

The point is, as the article says, the department responsible for assisting the workers in getting their money was inept and non-responsive.

[Raston]

4. precisely.

Underfund a department and you get predictable results - just look at ICE and the FDA to name but a couple.

[HillWilliam]

7. That exactly has been the repukes' MO for the last 30 years

Since Raygun, their MO has been to underfund, starve, and/or completely mismanage a department by hiring their idiot cronies in at the top preciscely to fuck it up. When it's good and broken, the repuke bobbleheads all nod together and chorus "woe is us! See there, it's broken and needs to be abolished!", never once taking responsibility for who broke it in the first place.

They've done it over and over and over. It's the Norquistian philosophy in practice. We're just seeing the B*shian Ex-Lax touch on this one here, that's all.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Not true in all lines of work, methods of pay

Not at all. And it is not only the employee being screwed, in many cases it is also the State and Fed folks being screwed, and they, for several years now, have not done a thing about any of it.

[dysfunctional press]

8. a company i worked for never paid into FICA the money they deducted from my paychecks for 2 years...

i didn't find out about it until i was approved for disability, and the SS officer was going over my benefits amount with me.
the company had long since been bankrupt and gone, so i have no recourse, and my monthly check is 12% less than it should be because of it.

[enuegii]

10. A very simple scheme is for an employer...

to request (actually require) employees to clock in early or stay late, day after day, sometimes year after year, while paying the employer only for the normal shift. Ten, fifteen minutes or so adds up over time, and employers are required to pay for all the time on the clock, including overtime.
A guy I worked for got busted for this practice, which occurred over several years. For some reason, Federal law did not apply in this case, but state law did. The Labor board investigated and found against the employer, but, strangely enough, the Alabama State Labor Board had no means of enforcing its decision; i.e., compliance was voluntary.
This happened before I was employed there, but a couple of people were owed in the range of $1500-$2000 dollars. And, as far as I know, no one ever got their money.