What Is Wage Theft Protection?
Wage theft protection is a law that was enacted in 2012 and its main aim was to help protect workers as well as ensure that workers are notified on time on any changes regarding their work on time by the employer. This law covers all employers in the private sector unless there is certain specified exception.
However, this notice is not required for employees who have been employed by the state or work in any subdivision of the state including city, county and special district. The same case also applies for employees who have entered into a collective bargaining agreement with their employees and the agreement meets all conditions that have been discussed by both parties.
However, it is very important to note that private schools, charter schools as well as non-profit corporations are actually covered because they are not public corporations.
What The Law Requires
This new law means that employees must receive comprehensive notice that contains specific information at the time of hire. The information that the notice should contain includes rates of pay as well as a basis of pay.
This means that the employees have to specify whether the workers will be paid only hourly, weekly or monthly basis or on commission. Overtime rates if applicable must also be specified.
Other important factors that the notice should contain include allowances, regular payday that the employer has put in place in accordance with the law, name of the employer, physical address of the employees main office or main place of doing business, official telephone number of the employer, name ,address as well as the telephone number of employer workers compensation insurance carrier and lastly in other crucial information that the labor commission see that it is actually necessary to notify the employee.
The law also regulates the employer to notify the employee within 7 days and in writing if there are any changes.
What Happens If The Employee Refuses To Sign The Notice?
Signatures both by the employer and the worker are very important because it proves that the notice was given by the employer and received by the employee.
In the instance where the employer has presented the notice to the employee but the employer does not want to sign it, then the employer should still give the notice to the employee but note that the worker has refused to sign the notice on the copy.
The employee signature only shows that he/she has received the notice. However, the most important thing that the employer needs to do is to ensure that all information included in the notice is accurate and complete.
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