PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — This Labor Day holiday, the U.S. Department of Labor is reminding workers of their right to speak up to their employers about unfair or unsafe conditions on the job.
“All employees should be aware that they have the right to be paid correctly, they have a right to a safe workplace — and perhaps most importantly, they have the right to speak out to complain to their employer,” said Adam Welsh, wage-and-hour counsel in the Philadelphia regional office of the Labor Department.
Welsh recalled one recent case where workers at a diner in Lansdowne complained, and the Labor Department took the employer to court.
“The restaurant basically took tips from their servers and used them to pay other employees, which is not permitted under the Fair Labor Standards Act. We recovered over $1 million in back wages and damages for the employees for those violations,” Welsh told KYW Newsradio.
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“[Another case] was a home health care company that simply didn’t pay its workers the time-and-a-half overtime premium that the Fair Labor Standards Act requires,” Welsh said. “This is a case we litigated, took to trial and recovered over four-and-a-half million dollars in back wages and liquidated damages for employees.”
Welsh said the law is on the side of workers who raise a complaint.
“All employees are protected from retaliation by their employer for speaking out, whether that means complaining to the employer or complaining to us. It is unlawful for the employer to retaliate against them for that,” he said.
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“Regardless of their immigration status — whether they’re an immigrant, non-immigrant, documented, not documented — they are entitled to be paid correctly, and they’re entitled to be free from retaliation,” Welsh added. “We will bring lawsuits against employers who we find have retaliated against employees for speaking out and exercising their rights. And this is important, because our cases often depend on employees cooperating with us.”
Welsh said he encourages employees who believe their rights are being violated to contact the U.S. Department of Labor at 866-4-USA-DOL (866-487-2365), or go to the department's Labor Rights Week website.