Push To Protect Employee Rights

Officials of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, the New York State Labor Department and the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s Office have signed memoranda of understanding to protect the rights of employees by preventing their mis-classification as independent contractors or other non-employee statuses.

The memoranda represent a new effort on the part of the three agencies to work together to protect the rights of employees and level the playing field by reducing the practice of mis-classification. The New York State Labor Department and New York State Attorney General’s Office are the latest state agencies to partner with the Labor Department.

In the last two years, the Wage Hour Division has secured over $18.2 million in back wages for more than 19,000 workers where the primary reason for violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act were that workers were not being treated or classified as employees. This represents a 97 percent increase in back wages following the implementation of these agreements.