U.S. Department of Labor addresses employment retaliation

Two ranking members of the U.S. Department of Labor recently discussed workplace retaliation against employees who file wage-related complaints, sending this strong and unequivocal message to employers in California and elsewhere across the country: Don’t do it.

In fact, don’t even entertain the thought, say the writers, because employer retaliation in the realm of wage-and-hour matters is a top-shelf oversight and enforcement concern of the DOL.

Assertions regarding employer retaliation can sometimes make for a bit of a slippery slope, given competing interpretations and stories that emerge from business principals and workers, respectively. Concededly, an employer might in good faith act against a worker in a manner that company principals believe is not unlawful — when in fact it is. And it is certainly sometimes true that workers allege illicit behavior carried out by an employer that turns out to be lawful.

Notwithstanding the withholding of any immediate judgment regarding a retaliation claim that is of course necessary to conduct an impartial probe and reach a just conclusion, the above commentators render it quite clear in a recent article that employment regulators will take a searingly close look at any retaliation claim.

Both businesses and workers need to duly note that, and can be assisted by studied and on-point input from a proven business law firm that routinely represents management and workers, respectively, in employment-related legal matters.

Again, employer retaliation is firmly on the DOL radar screen. Reportedly, regulators have helped more than 1.7 million workers across the country in retaliation-related wage-and-hour matters since 2009.