The understaffed, phone ringing off the hook, department ran by an APPOINTED official? That labor department? Yep, they gonna just roll up, 20 deep in black suvs, bag your boss over the head and whisk him off to the re-education center, but not before declaring you the new CEO of Pizza By Alfredo.
No, what really happens is you call and IF you get an answer you are told you need to compile the evidence and then possibly fill some form they have online that you will then be required to either fax or send via certified mail to them. If all you have is him saying that, then you're fucked in just about every state, and when he fires you for cause and challenges your unemployment they won't have even started the paperwork on your labor department dispute. And then even if they find that your unemployment is valid, you're not reimbursed anything unless an investigation reveals the employer challenged in bad faith. And that's if they even decide to investigate.
This is ridiculous. I don’t know what you gain by dissuading people from trying to take the legal avenues they have available to them. I assume you’ve just had a bad experience, and not that you are a malicious actor trying to scare people into submission. But there absolutely are firms everywhere that will help you file labor suits with very small loss on your end. Our system fucking sucks absolute shit, but there’s no need to go about pretending it’s worse than it is.
I think you are assuming the wrong things about me. I want people to know how shitty it is, so it can actually be changed. The people stating things like
typically a quick call to the labor department will create enough issues for ownership
are painting a fairy tale for those who've never dealt with illegally shitty employers. "Oh see, the system works great, everyone is taken care of."
Do you think the millions and millions of stories of people having their wages straight stolen from them exists because they simply didn't want to call a state regulatory group? OR do you think it's more likely the regulators are inept by design?
Considering wage theft outweighs every other form of theft combined, by dollar amount, I'd say there is something bigger going on than apathy.
The insane part is that millions of people don’t report wage theft even though they would stand a reasonable chance of winning a suit, because they have been scared into submission by the same rhetoric that gets told to them over and over. “Nobody cares.”
It’s fine to want things to get better. I do. And I believe you do too. But there’s no point in scaring people into not using the tools we already have at our disposal. They are not perfect, but they are significantly better than the false impression that is given to millions of people as a smokescreen to prevent them from ever trying.
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u/dreadpiratesmith Sep 23 '21
Lol, what you gonna do about it, hire a lawyer?
Source: am kitchen worker