New York employers need to be aware of several recent changes in the Wage and Hour regulations, including rules regarding maintenance of uniforms, meals and lodging.
This comes on the heels of news that the New York Department of Labor reached a settlement on January 27, 2010 with a Queens supermarket for not paying grocery baggers at all. Apparently, the food store required baggers to work for tips only, without any wages. When one employee complained that this was illegal, he was terminated.
The supermarket paid more than $300,000 in back wages to three baggers and reinstated the employee, under the terms of the settlement.
“It continues to frustrate me how employers can continue to flaunt the law and simply not pay their workers. We are glad that the employer agreed to pay workers the wages they owe them, and to reinstate the worker they fired,” Labor Commissioner Smith said.
The wage and hour changes proposed by the wage board were recently approved by the New York Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith.
The new regulations require that New York employers follow the federal regulations regarding uniform maintenance costs. In the past, the employer was required to reimburse employees for the cost of cleaning uniforms. In the case of uniforms that could be machine washed, the employer still had to pay employees for time spent laundering the uniforms. The new regulations exempt employers from such payments for time spent doing laundry.
When uniforms must be dry cleaned, the New York regulations still require that the employer pay this expense. The regulation applies even when the employee’s salary far exceeds the minimum wage.
In spite of the Wage Board’s recommendation, the Labor Commissioner refused to change the New York regulations that allow employers to take credit toward the minimum wage for meals and lodging if the employer failed to enter that credit into the payroll system. The Labor Commissioner ruled that – at least for the present – such a regulation would unfairly punish employers without sophisticated computerized payroll systems.
However, New York employers should be prepared for such a change in the regulations in the future.
