The NJ Supreme Court is deliberating on the issue of whether an an employee should receive workers’ compensation if an injured occurred at an off-regular-hours event. The issue presented to the Court was whether an employee is entitled to benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act, specifically N.J.S.A. 34:15-7, for injuries that occurred while she was volunteering at her employer’s “Family Fun Day” event?
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query overtime. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query overtime. Sort by date Show all posts
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Friday, September 20, 2013
Labor Dept. Mandates Minimum Wage, Overtime Pay For Home Health Workers
Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org
The U. S. Department of Labor issued new rules Tuesday that mandate home health care agencies pay their workers the minimum wage and receive overtime pay starting in 2015. "Almost 2 million home care workers are doing critical work, providing services to people with disabilities and senior citizens who want to live in community settings and age in place in their familiar surroundings," said Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. But when it comes to getting paid, they are "lumped into the same category as teenage babysitters," he said. "This is wrong and this is unfair." For nearly 40 years, home care workers had been exempted from the pay rules because their services were considered "companionship." But advocates, including organized labor organizations, had argued that these workers were often doing much more, providing assistance with dressing, eating and other daily activities. The decision extends the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage requirements, currently at least $7.25 an hour, to direct care workers, including home health aides, personal care aides and certified nursing assistants, according to a Labor Department statement. "This is a tremendous victory for home care aides, a workforce earning near-poverty wages while providing vital personal care and health-related services to America’s elders and people living with disabilities," said Jodi M. Sturgeon, president of Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI National), an advocacy... |
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Saturday, September 28, 2013
Workers ask President Obama to raise their wages
 President Obama has also shown sympathy for the issues of low-wage workers, although the minimum wage increase he's expressly supported -- to $9 an hour -- is still less than what activists usually consider a "living wage." "I think the president's heart in the right place," Ellison said. "We’ve just got to get his pen on the right place." Federal contractors employ over a fifth of the American civilian workforce, and more than 560,000 of these workers earn $12 or less an hour, according to Demos, a liberal think tank. Many of them are cleaners and concession workers in federal buildings. If you include all the low-wage jobs funded by public dollars, including the 1.2 million paychecks underwritten by Medicare and Medicaid, the total, Demos found, surpasses the low-wage workforce of Walmart and McDonald’s combined. Labor group Good Jobs Nation, backed by the Service Employees International Union, organized three smaller building-specific strikes earlier this year, as well as a city-wide labor action in May. It’s part of a larger strategy by unions and labor activists to push for higher wages in the largely non-unionized workforces of retail and fast food. Organizers called Wednesday's event the largest low-wage federal worker strike to date. Both Ellison and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) gave passionate speeches at the event. |
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Time to Boot Up a Computer Held to be Working
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of defendant Customer Connexx LLC and remanded for further proceedings in a collective action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act by call center workers.
Saturday, March 13, 2021
US Department Of Labor Announces Proposals To Rescind Two Rules That Undermine Worker Protections Against Unfair Pay Practices
The U.S. Department of Labor today announced proposals to rescind two final rules that would significantly weaken protections afforded to American workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Monday, December 5, 2011
US Labor Department, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment sign agreement to reduce misclassification of employees as independent contractors
Nancy J. Leppink, deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, and Ellen Golombek, executive director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, signed a memorandum of understanding Dec. 5 regarding the improper classification of employees as independent contractors. Following the signing, Leppink and Golombek hosted a press teleconference during which they discussed how the U.S. Department of Labor and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment will embark on new efforts, guided by this memorandum, to protect the rights of employees and level the playing field for responsible employers by reducing the practice conducted by some businesses of misclassifying employees. This partnership is the 11th of its kind for the U.S. Department of Labor.
"This memorandum of understanding helps us send a message: We're standing united to end the practice of misclassifying employees," said Leppink. "This is an important step toward making sure that the American dream is still available for employees and responsible employers alike."
"Misclassification costs everyone," said Golombek. "It destabilizes the business climate by creating an unlevel playing field and causing responsible businesses to suffer unfair competition. The efforts we will be launching with the U.S. Department of Labor will promote accountability that Colorado employers and employees will welcome."
Employee misclassification is a growing problem. In 2010, the Wage and Hour Division collected nearly $4 million in back wages for minimum wage and overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act that resulted from employees being misclassified as independent contractors or otherwise not treated as employees.
Business models that attempt to change, obscure or eliminate the employment relationship are not inherently illegal, unless they are used to evade compliance with federal labor law. The misclassification of employees as something else, such as independent contractors, presents a serious problem, as these employees often are denied access to critical benefits and protections — such as family and medical leave, overtime compensation, minimum wage pay and Unemployment Insurance — to which they are entitled. In addition, misclassification can create economic pressure for law-abiding business owners, who often find it difficult to compete with those who are skirting the law.Employee misclassification also generates substantial losses for state Unemployment Insurance and workers' compensation funds.
Memorandums of understanding with state government agencies arose as part of the U.S. Department of Labor's Misclassification Initiative, which was launched under the auspices of Vice President Biden's Middle Class Task Force with the goal of preventing, detecting and remedying employee misclassification. Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Utah and Washington have signed similar agreements. More information is available on the U.S. Department of Labor's misclassification Web page at http://www.dol.gov/misclassification.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
FedEx Ground Says Its Drivers Aren't Employees. The Courts Will Decide
| Five days a week for 10 years, Agostino Scalercio left his house before 6 a.m., drove to a depot to pick up a truck, and worked a 10-hour shift delivering packages in San Diego. He first worked for Roadway Package System, a national delivery company whose founders included former United Parcel Service (UPS) managers, and continued driving trucks when (FDX) bought RPS in 1998. FedEx Ground assigned Scalercio a service area. The company, he says, had strict standards about delivery times, the drivers’ grooming, truck maintenance, and deadlines for handing in paperwork, and deducted money from his pay to cover the cost of his uniform, truck washings, and the scanner used to log shipments. FedEx Ground didn’t pay overtime or contribute to Scalercio’s Social Security benefits. That’s because since acquiring RPS and introducing its ground service, the FedEx unit has treated drivers as independent contractors, not employees. “The saying around the building was, ‘It’s their sandbox. We only get to play in it,’ ” says Scalercio, who no longer drives for FedEx Ground but is one of hundreds of current and former drivers suing the FedEx subsidiary, seeking back pay for overtime worked and for paycheck deductions. (The parent company is not a defendant.)Scalercio earned about $90,000 a year from FedEx, he says, but... |
Friday, August 22, 2014
Labor Secretary Perez on how to produce better-paying jobs
 At the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce this week, U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez kicked off a cross-country, pre-Labor Day tour to champion higher minimum wages, higher-wage jobs and other causes in talks with employers, workers and local leaders. Perez told the chamber audience at a luncheon Monday that the nation faced two major challenges -- a stagnation in wage growth and the increase in long-term unemployed workers. He also noted the decline in the unemployment rate and improving prospects for skilled manufacturing. Before taking his post a year ago, Perez was the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, where he led investigations into the death of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and alleged police misconduct in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He also spoke with Times reporters and editors. Here is an edited version of that interview: Why is there so much attention on pay for entry-level jobs as opposed to moving workers into better jobs? All of the billion dollars we’ve been giving out is designed to strengthen the ladders of opportunity to the middle class. The CareerConnect grant is all about training people in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields so people don’t graduate from high school and go right to fast food. They go out of high school with the skills that enable... |
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
NJDOL, Treasury Raid Worksite in First Joint-Enforcement Action to Combat Worker Misclassification
A team of more than 60 investigators from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) and the Department of the Treasury, supported by other state agencies, conducted an unannounced investigation of a construction site at 88 Regent Street in Jersey City in response to allegations of worker misclassification.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Job Stress A Risk For Heart Attack
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| Map of Heart Disease Death Rates in US White Males from 2000-2004 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
"30 214 (15%) of 197 473 participants reported job strain. In 1·49 million person-years at risk (mean follow-up 7·5 years [SD 1·7]), we recorded 2358 events of incident coronary heart disease. After adjustment for sex and age, the hazard ratio for job strain versus no job strain was 1·23 (95% CI 1·10—1·37). This effect estimate was higher in published (1·43, 1·15—1·77) than unpublished (1·16, 1·02—1·32) studies. Hazard ratios were likewise raised in analyses addressing reverse causality by exclusion of events of coronary heart disease that occurred in the first 3 years (1·31, 1·15—1·48) and 5 years (1·30, 1·13—1·50) of follow-up. We noted an association between job strain and coronary heart disease for sex, age groups, socioeconomic strata, and region, and after adjustments for socioeconomic status, and lifestyle and conventional risk factors. The population attributable risk for job strain was 3·4%."
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For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered work related accident and injuries.
For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered work related accident and injuries.
Read more about "heart disease" and working conditions
Sep 11, 2012
"More than 80 million people in the United States have some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD)—for example, coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, or heart failure—and millions of others are at increased...
Apr 06, 2012
The occupational exposure to asbestos fiber has now been linked to fatal heart disease. A recent report associates asbestos exposure at work to a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease ...
Jan 30, 2012
In the general population, high BMI generally correlates with high body fat, and we know that high body fat is a risk factor for death (mortality) and heart disease. Is the same true for elite athletes, for whom high BMI may relate ...
May 19, 2010
New studies just published establish the causal relationship of overtime work with an increased risk of heart disease resulting in a greater risk of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction and angina. Workers who ...
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Employers Fined $1.3 Million for MIsclassification of Workers Including Failure to Have Adequate Workers' Compensation Insurance
The State of New Jersey is strictly enforcing laws that mandate a worker's employment status be properly reported and that employers provide adequate workers' compensation insurance coverage. The state has some of the strictest laws in the country and they are being enforced vigorously through a multi-agency protocol.
Friday, November 30, 2012
US sues Los Arcos Mexican Grill & Seafood in Tennessee to recover unpaid minimum and overtime wages for 70 employees
Workers' Compensation payment rates are determined by the wages of the employee at the time of the accident. In fact, so are the premium paid by an employer for workers' compensation coverage. Accuracy in payment and reporting is critical to a favorable claim for benefits.
The suit is based on an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division, which found that the employer failed to pay employees at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour as well as provide overtime compensation at time and one-half employees' regular rates for hours worked beyond 40 in a week. Additionally, the employer failed to maintain accurate records of hours worked and wages paid.
"Low-wage workers deserve the full protection of federal labor laws," said Sandra Sanders, director of the division's Nashville District Office. "The Wage and Hour Division will continue to ensure that these workers, including employees of both full- and limited-service restaurants, receive their full pay, and employers who follow the law do not face unfair competition from those who ignore it. This lawsuit illustrates that the division will use every enforcement tool necessary to resolve cases in which vulnerable workers have been exploited."
The suit has been filed by the department's Office of the Solicitor in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division.
The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. In general, "hours worked" includes all time an employee must be on duty, or on the employer's premises or at any other prescribed place of work, from the beginning of the first principal work activity to the end of the last principal activity of the workday. Additionally, the law requires that accurate records of employees' wages, hours and other conditions of employment be maintained.
Accessible and searchable information on enforcement activities by the Department of Labor is available athttp://ogesdw.dol.gov/search. Publicly available enforcement data are also available through the free mobile application "Eat Shop Sleep," which enables consumers, employees and other members of the public to check if a hotel, restaurant or retail location has been investigated by the Wage and Hour Division, and whether FLSA violations were found. The app is available at http://www.dol.gov/dol/apps/winners.htm.
The division's Nashville office can be reached at 615-781-5343. Information on the FLSA and other wage laws is available by calling the division's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) or by visiting http://www.dol.gov/whd/.
Solis v. Los Arcos Seafood & Grill Inc., doing business as Los Arcos Mexican Grill & Seafood, and Jose Gutierrez Jr. and Martin Romo
Read More on "Wages"
Nov 14, 2012
The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $213,000 in back wages for 1,028 foreign students employed in summer jobs in Palmyra where they repackaged candies for promotional displays. The settlement with ...
Jan 20, 2012
pilot, pay more than $1 million in back wages and damages. OSHA found airline violated whistleblower protection provision of AIR21. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ...
May 01, 2012
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., has agreed to pay $4,828,442 in back wages and damages to more than 4,500 employees nationwide following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's ...
May 08, 2011
A lawsuit was filed last week against major players in the dot-com field for fixing employees wages. An employee's wage is a determining factor in workers' compensation claims to ascertain scheduled rates of compensation ...
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Friday, July 20, 2012
Workers Compensation Pharmaceuticals Targeted For Reform
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| Ritalin (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The study examines the results of a change to the California statute that has become a model for many other states. Critics of the regulations express concern that many patients will not get needed medications if they do not get them at the physicians’ offices.
The study, Physician Dispensing in Workers’ Compensation, examines physician dispensing before and after a 2007 change in the California statute that governed the prices paid to physician-dispensers. Prior to the statutory change, physicians typically charged much higher prices than pharmacies for the same medication. For example, for the most common drug, Vicodin®, physicians were paid $0.85 per pill compared to $0.43 for pharmacies—nearly double the price. After the reforms, physicians were paid $0.52 per pill compared to $0.48 for pharmacies. After the law changed, physicians were paid prices for prescription medications that were similar to those paid to pharmacies for the same medication.
This study finds that:
· physician-dispensed drugs became increasingly common in most states that permit physician dispensing;
· prices paid for physician-dispensed drugs were often substantially higher than if the same drugs were dispensed by a retail pharmacy;
· prices paid to dispensing physicians rose rapidly for medications that were commonly dispensed by physicians, while the prices paid to pharmacies for the same drugs changed little or fell.
One of the chief concerns expressed by supporters of physician dispensing (in California and in other states) was that doctors would stop dispensing needed prescriptions when it became less profitable. However, the California post-reform experience shows that physicians continued to dispense prescriptions, even when the prices paid were lower. Before the reforms, 55 percent of all prescriptions were dispensed at physician offices. Three years after the reforms, 53 percent of all prescriptions in California were physician-dispensed so patients had similar access to physician dispensed medications, but at a much lower cost.
Robert Ceniceros, a reporter for Business Insurance, reported, "...But critics contend such price regulations may discourage doctors from dispensing drugs and discourage patients from getting the prescription drugs they need."
The report also examines several other concerns expressed by supporters of physician dispensing. One is that spending on prescription drugs might increase if a California-type reform were adopted. They argue that physicians almost always dispense less expensive generic versions of drugs, while pharmacies dispense both brand names and generics. The study found that for the specific medications commonly dispensed by physicians, generics were almost always dispensed by both physicians and pharmacies. In many states, when generic drugs were dispensed, physician-dispensers were paid much higher prices per pill than pharmacies for the same prescription.
The data used for this study include nearly 5.7 million prescriptions paid under workers’ compensation for approximately 758,000 claims from 23 states over a period from 2007/2008 to 2010/2011. The 23 states in this study represent over two-thirds of the workers’ compensation benefits paid in the United States. These states include Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Several of the states in this study (Arizona, California, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee) recently adopted reforms aimed at reducing the prices of physician-dispensed drugs.
The data used for this study include nearly 5.7 million prescriptions paid under workers’ compensation for approximately 758,000 claims from 23 states over a period from 2007/2008 to 2010/2011. The 23 states in this study represent over two-thirds of the workers’ compensation benefits paid in the United States. These states include Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Several of the states in this study (Arizona, California, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee) recently adopted reforms aimed at reducing the prices of physician-dispensed drugs.
Related Blogs on drugs and workers' compensation
Jul 12, 2012
Prescription drugs have become an increasingly important issue in workers' compensation law. Their use in workers' compensation claims has resulted in both a major direct financial cost to the system, and has had .
Jun 20, 2012
As state workers' compensation reformers continue to be sidetracked with alleged prescription drug pain-killer abuse, the US Congress has entered the fray with proposed Federal legislation. It has been reported today by ...
May 04, 2012
To use the prescription drug abuse issue to attack workers' compensation generally is merely sidetracking the real problem with the medical delivery system which is the global denial of compensability of workers' ...
Mar 30, 2011
Many states, including Wisconsin, hold that if an injury results from intoxication (by alcohol or drugs) benefits are not denied, but reduced (usually by 15%) as an employee safety violation, but intoxication is not evidence of a ...
Nov 18, 2011
The Complex World of Workers' Compensation and Pharmaceutical Benefits. The Workers' Compensation system, designed over a century ago, was intended to provide medical benefits that were to be delivered to injured ...
Sep 14, 2011
The Top 10 Drugs Prescribed For Workers Compensation Claims. A recent study by NCCI Holdings, Inc. reports the top 10 most popular drugs prescribed for workers' compensation claims. OXYCONTIN®; LIDODERM ...
Dec 05, 2011
Workers Compensation on Drugs - Tenn Supreme Court Allows Fatal Case to Proceed. A major complaint of the failure of medicine is that sick people are sent to the pharmacy for pain relief without adequate evaluation ...
Mar 09, 2010
After an onsite review of the plan and its services, CMS determined that the plan's significant deficiencies – not meeting Medicare's requirements to provide enrollees with prescription drugs according to recognized standards ...
Mar 21, 2012
For Medicare beneficiaries stuck in the prescription drug benefit coverage gap known as the "doughnut hole," a 50 percent discount on covered brand name drugs and 14 percent savings on generic drugs. * A requirement ...
Thursday, July 11, 2019
NJ Enters Into a Tri-State Agreement to Protect Workers
Labor departments from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware signed a reciprocal agreement on Tuesday designed to better protect workers and employers through a newly established pipeline of information sharing and coordination of enforcement efforts.
This agreement grants new powers to each state, including strategic data-sharing, interstate case referrals, and joint investigations that will greatly impact wage claim investigations, worker misclassification, workplace safety efforts, and other labor-related compliance matters.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Injured employees cheated by workers’ comp law, Miami-Dade judge says
| Today's post is shared from miamiherald.com A Miami judge declared Florida’s long-controversial workers’ compensation law unconstitutional Wednesday, saying successive state legislatures had so diminished medical care and wage-loss benefits for injured workers that the statute now violates employees’ “fundamental” rights. In a case involving a Miami-Dade County government office worker, Circuit Judge Jorge E. Cueto said the nearly 80-year-old law forces injured workers into a legal system that is so flawed it does not provide adequate medical care or dollars to replace lost wages. Under Florida law, workers have no choice but to seek benefits under the workers’ comp system. Except under rare circumstances, they cannot sue their employers. “The benefits in the act have been so decimated,” Cueto wrote, “that it no longer provides a reasonable alternative” to filing suit in civil court. Cueto’s ruling comes at a pivotal time for mostly blue-collar and agricultural workers in Florida: Lawmakers and business leaders say high workers’ compensation insurance premiums have threatened to derail the state’s economic growth, while worker advocates say the state has allowed widespread insurance fraud to fester while counteracting the high premiums by punishing workers. The controversy, which has simmered for years, is becoming increasingly prominent as worker rights lawyers ask judges, including those on the state’s highest court, to strike down the... |
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Wage Statistics for 2012
The national average wage index (AWI) is based on compensation (wages, tips, and the like) subject to Federal income taxes, as reported by employers on Forms W-2. Beginning with the AWI for 1991, compensation includes contributions to deferred compensation plans, but excludes certain distributions from plans where the distributions are included in the reported compensation subject to income taxes. We call the result of including contributions, and excluding certain distributions, net compensation. The table below summarizes the components of net compensation for 2012.Net compensation components for 2012
The "raw" average wage, computed as net compensation divided by the number of wage earners, is $6,529,097,960,690.75 divided by 153,632,290, or $42,498.21. Based on data in the table below, about 67.1 percent of wage earners had net compensation less than or equal to the $42,498.21 raw average wage. By definition, 50 percent of wage earners had net compensation less than or equal to the median wage, which is estimated to be $27,519.10 for 2012.
Distribution of wage earners by level of net...
Monday, April 21, 2014
Inside low-wage workers' plan to sue McDonald's — and win
Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.msnbc.com
The wage theft lawsuits filed against McDonald’s last week in New York, Michigan and California threaten to breach a wall that for decades has protected fast-food corporations from the demands of minimum wage workers.
The accuse McDonald’s restaurants of various illegal labor practices. Many fast food workers, it’s alleged, have been taken “off the clock” either while working or while waiting on site to start or complete a shift; either way, federal law requires that the workers be compensated for their time. Another allegation is that many of these low-wage workers have gotten the cost of their uniforms deducted from their paychecks, effectively reducing their pay to below the federally or state-mandated minimum wage. Yet another allegation is that many fast food workers have been denied legally-mandated overtime pay. What’s unusual here aren’t the claims of labor law violations, which are common enough, but rather, who’s being blamed. The wall that fast food workers hope to blast through with these class-action suits is the franchise system. All of the lawsuits name McDonald’s itself as a defendant, even though most of the targeted restaurants are owned not by McDonald’s but by McDonald’s franchisees. Starting with Howard Johnson’s in the 1930s, franchising enabled fast-food companies largely to get out of the food business. Owning and operating the restaurants was mostly left to franchisees –... |
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