After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Barrday Corp. – an industrial textile manufacturer operating in Charlotte, North Carolina – paid $2,606 in back wages for wrongly denying paid leave to an employee under the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA). The employee missed work to care for a child whose place of care was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
WHD found that Barrday Corp. violated the requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) by denying the employee paid family leave, and later terminating the employee. FFCRA provides workers up to two weeks of paid leave, and the EFMLEA provides up to an additional 10 weeks of paid leave at two-thirds their regular rate of pay to care for their children whose school or childcare provider is unavailable due to the coronavirus. After WHD contacted Barrday, the employer agreed to reinstate the employee, pay the back wages and comply with the FFCRA’s requirements in the future.
“The U.S. Department of Labor is protecting the American workforce during the coronavirus pandemic by ensuring employers comply with all of the requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act,” said Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Juan Coria, in Atlanta, Georgia. “These protections benefit workers and employers alike. We encourage employers with questions about their responsibilities to reach out to us for information.”
The FFCRA helps the U.S. combat and defeat the workplace effects of the coronavirus by giving tax credits to American businesses with fewer than 500 employees either to provide employees with paid leave for the employee’s own health needs or to care for family members. Please visit WHD’s “Quick Benefits Tips” for information about how much leave workers may qualify to use, and the wages employers must pay. The law enables employers to provide paid leave reimbursed by tax credits, while at the same time ensuring that workers are not forced to choose between their paychecks and the public health measures needed to combat the virus.
WHD continues to provide updated information on its website and through extensive outreach efforts to ensure that workers and employers have the information they need about the benefits and protections of this new law.
Learn more about the laws enforced by WHD, or call 866-4US-WAGE.