The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) exists, for the most part, to protect workers. Labor departments from each state do the same, in conjunction with the federal 
DOL. In the past 4 years alone, the U.S. DOL and Connecticut (CT) DOL have initiated hundreds of investigations of wage violations for the construction industry in CT and Rhode Island (RI). Under the general provisions of the DOL’s Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), on November 30, 2011, the Hartford, CT branch of the U.S. DOL issued a “multiyear enforcement initiative” to attack the notoriously-ongoing problems associated with minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping compliance in the CT and RI construction businesses.
Construction contracting managers in the CT and RI areas will have to accept a larger government presence in their project affairs for an unspecified amount of time into the future due to this recent enforcement initiative. There is no set end date for this investigation of the overseeing of labor hiring, classification and wage administration. Not only will federal, and state-based branches of the DOL be assessing the practices of the general contractors and subcontractors at larger construction projects in the CT and RI areas, but they will also be working to educate workers and unions in FLSA-based criteria in regards to minimum wages, overtime exemption classification and how their interests, as employees, will be protected by this initiative.
Investigations of the CT and RI construction industry are nothing new. Since 2008, the Hartford, CT-based DOL branch has opened up 183 cases on these construction employers. Over $3 million in back wage corrections were ordered to be paid via these DOL investigations. A pervasive issue amongst these CT and RI contractors was the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Obviously, hiring employees as independent contractors benefits the employer in terms of tax savings and overtime exemption; this is just one area that the multiyear enforcement initiative will target. It is also important to acknowledge that employees, themselves, can contribute to unfair practices simply by accepting work that they, while eager to have, know good-and-well is misclassified or being labeled something other than what it legally is.
Other areas of focus for the DOL’s ongoing investigations will be minimum wage adherence for both specific states, as well as maintaining that overtime wages be paid at a pay rate of 1.5 times hourly wages for any work done after 40 hours in one week. Making sure that workers are paid for all work done, such as that done during post-construction cleanup and applicable travel time to-and-from differing job sites are additional areas of concern, as is enforcement of legal work ages and violation of child labor laws, in general.
Aligning the CT and U.S. DOLs further serves to communicate to employers that violations will not be tolerated. Those doing work in the CT and RI areas should expect their overseeing of practices to be ongoing and comprehensive. Stop-work orders, payment of double back wages, as well as fines and possible criminal prosecution will be administered to those who do not attempt to adhere to or resolve issues with fair labor and wage adherence.
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