The U.S. Department of Labor issued the following statement.
The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $44,280 in back wages and liquidated damages for two employees of a Jackson ground delivery contractor who failed to compensate them for work they did off-the-clock from their homes.
Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Douglas Inc. – operating as Douglas Express Delivery – allowed the employees to work off-the-clock without compensation, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. After working their regular shifts and clocking out, the employees would then continue to perform work-related tasks from home such as responding to customers’ phone calls, texts and emails, providing directions to drivers for deliveries and finding alternate drivers when vehicles broke down.
In addition to failing to pay the workers for the off-the-clock work, Douglas Express owed the workers time-and-one half the required rate of pay as the off-the-clock work exceeded 40 hours in a workweek. The division also cited the employer with a recordkeeping violation for not recording the hours employees spent working from home after they left their physical worksite. The division also assessed Douglas Express with an $882 civil penalty for repeat violations. In two previous investigations, Douglas Express paid $157,568 in back wages to 59 employees.
“The pandemic blurred the lines between home and office as safety dictated that some companies allow workers to complete job-related tasks from their homes, however, employers remain obligated to compensate workers for all their hours of work, including the time they spent working from home,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Audrey Hall in Jackson, Mississippi. “As more people use e-commerce sites to shop and the demands on warehousing, logistics and delivery companies increase, employers must ensure they comply fully with worker protections of wages and benefits, regardless of where the work is performed.”
Amid historic shifts in the nation’s workforce, employers are finding it more difficult to retain and recruit the people they need to do the jobs they offer. Many of those difficulties are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment in transportation and warehousing, excluding the postal service, to grow about 327,300 new jobs in the next decade.
“Workers will naturally flock to businesses that show an ability to pay them their full wages as they are earned,” Hall added. “Employers who fail to meet their legal obligation to workers and make it harder for them to make ends meet may find themselves struggling to hire the people they need to operate.”
Established in 1958, Douglas Inc. is a ground delivery contractor that delivers office supplies, furniture, pharmaceuticals, auto parts, beverages, medical supplies and mail. The company has five branch locations in Tupelo, Batesville, Greenwood, Hattiesburg and Gulfport.
19 comments:
Thank goodness that the Democratic Party gave us the labor protections! If it were up to the GOP, we would have zero labor rights and this type of exploitation would be commonplace.
Pay up or shut down! Workers will no longer be exploited!
Or Douglas delivers a stiff to workers.
Yea 12:48
having to pay a criminal organization to have a job that protects a bunch of drunks and drugheads who turn out second rate work and products so that you can't get rid of them.....
My father was hardcore union and touted how great they were, but then after I quit the union after 3 months and got a real job, he just couldn't understand how I later retired in my 50's compared to his late 60's with a better retirement and benefits. Nope, nothing a union can do for me.
@1:41
Nobody said anything about a union. The labor protections that DED was fined for violating exist at a federal level. The law benefited you as well. But it’s obvious that your biased logical fallacies twist everything you perceive into whatever political cult narrative that you current subscribe to. I’m guessing you didn’t retire from a field that required abstract thought, or critical thinking skills.
Unions are for those people who are not good enough employees to make it own their own work. They have to pay other people to save them from being fired for poor performance.
@2:09
Actually, unions are for people who work in labor and manufacturing and don’t want to end up like a Chinese factory worker. Perhaps you should do a little bit of research about the current state of Chinese factory workers. China doesn’t allow collective bargaining or unionization. The PRC is the only legal Labor Union in China. And then look back at what it was like for factory workers in the USA, the UK, and Europe during the early decades of the Industrial Revolution. Look specifically into the safety.
I’m not even a leftist and yes, I own my own light manufacturing business. I wouldn’t personally treat my workers the way many factory owners did back then. It’s always common to dehumanize laborers, especially immigrants. Even in China, the farm workers who sneak into town to worm the factories without proper documents are exploited.
Labor unions have been abused by organized crime and lazy, incompetent workers. But so has everything else you can imagine from sports to the church!
@244 you think union jobs weren’t shipped overseas when Clinton /Obama was/were president? Lol
@1248-The companies that are under paying and mistreating their employees are woke left wing companies that support the Dim party.
@3:00 PM
Why would you assume I don’t think that? Of course they were! Just like Union jobs were shipped overseas while Bush and Trump were president! Bush even shipped most of the recovered steel from the demolished WTC towers to China! Do you have a head injury?
You read a story about a delivery service supposedly not paying their workers properly and the next thing you know, you're talking about China and their factory workers. I bet those factory guys would like to work for Douglas Delivery.
OH my, another story with two sides. Who would have thought.
Douglas has the contract with state liquor warehouse to deliver liquor in Mississippi. The prior company that delivered liquor had the contract for many years and was a stand up company.
Unions offer apprenticeships, health insurance and good retirements for their members.
But, they create the laziest workers and f--k all of their customers on prices. And I mean they do not use any lube!
12:48 - Turn your union-cap around, son. Workers' Rights were popularized under FDR's watch. At that time in this country's history everybody who is a republican today, would have been a democrat then. I know you won't understand this, but I tried.
"Bush even shipped most of the recovered steel from the demolished WTC towers to China! Do you have a head injury? October 18, 2022 at 3:46 PM"
Bush never was a shipping clerk and never was involved in freight movements. But, that aside, what do you suggest should have been done with that steel? Should it have been hauled to places like the Birmingham Steel Mil.....wait....democrats orchestrated, made necessary and presided over the demise of US steel mills and most other heavy industrial smokestack workplaces 30-45 years ago. I guess it could have been dumped at sea for oyster reefs and such.
8:16
That's like saying gas stations offer gasoline, sodas and window squeegee usage.
The workers pay for those things. All unions do is create a layer of fleeced income from the actual workers.
@2:44, interesting commentary, but without an answer. You defend unions, making old time comparisons. You state you own a light manufacturing business.
Question: Is your business unionized? Or do you do what most every manufacturing business does nowdays, employ people based on ability and willingness to work; pay them decent wages; provide competitive benefits; but retain the ability to compensate base on ability rather than senority?
I look forward to hearing your defense of unions along with your response.
@507 - check when Davis got the contract you reference with the department of revenue. And when the Commissioner (appointed by former Governor Bryant, and a current associate of Bryant Songy) of the Department resigned. Is there any correlation?
What jurisdiction?
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