5832821 Resolution 21-358, Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2016

A RESOLUTION

                                                        

21-358

 

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

January 5, 2016        

 

           

To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008 to clarify that employees in the building and construction industry covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement shall be exempted from the paid leave requirements of the act only if the agreement expressly waives those requirements; to amend the Minimum Wage Act Revision Act of 1992 to exempt an employer from keeping precise time records for bona fide executive, administrative, and professional, as well as certain other, employees, to require an employer or a temporary staffing firm to provide notice regarding payment to an employee in a second language if the Mayor has made available a translation of the sample notice template in that second language and the employer knows that second language to be the employee’s primary language or the employee requests notice in that second language, and to require the Mayor to make available, in any language required for a vital document under the Language Access Act of 2004, a translation of the sample template to be used by an employer or a temporary staffing firm when providing notice to an employee regarding payment; and to amend An Act To provide for the payment and collection of wages in the District of Columbia to continue to exempt an employer from paying wages to bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees at least twice during each calendar month, provided that the employer pays wages to such employees at least once per month.

                                                                                                                                                           

            RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the “Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2016”.

 

            Sec. 2.   (a)  On July 14, 2014, the Council unanimously passed the Wage Theft Prevention Amendment Act of 2014, effective February 26, 2015 (D.C. Law 20-157; 61 DCR 10157) (the “Act”) to prevent employers’ failure to pay earned wages through enforcement by the District and to create a private right of action for injured employees.

            (b)  Since the passage of the Act, the Council has identified several unintended consequences of the Act, including the requirement that all employees, including white-collar, salaried employees, be paid at least twice per month, the requirement that employers keep records of the “precise time worked” each day and each workweek by all employees, including those not compensated on an hourly or other unit-of-time basis, and the requirement that an employer provide notice to an employee regarding payment in an employee’s primary language, without providing a limit on the languages in which that notice must be furnished.

            (c)  It was not the Council’s intent to require that white-collar, salaried employees be paid at least twice a month or to require an employer to keep records of the precise time worked by all employees, including those not compensated on an hourly or other unit-of-time basis.  Further, requiring notice to be furnished in any language that might be an employee’s primary language will be unnecessarily burdensome and costly.

            (d)  To address these unintended consequences, on February 3, 2015, the Council passed the Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2015, effective February 26, 2015 (D.C. Act 21-8; 62 DCR 2669) (the “emergency legislation”), and, on March 3, 2015, the Council passed the Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2015, effective June 4, 2015 (D.C. Law 21-2; 62 DCR 4552) (the “temporary legislation”).

            (e)  The emergency legislation has expired and the temporary legislation will expire on January 15, 2016.

            (f)  Since the passage of the emergency legislation and the temporary legislation, it also has come to the Council’s attention that the Act inadvertently deleted language allowing employees in the building and construction industry to bargain to waive the paid leave requirements of the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008, effective May 13, 2008 (D.C. Law 17-152; D.C. Official Code § 32-131.01 et seq.), through a bona fide collective bargaining agreement.  Instead, the Act exempts building and construction industry employees covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement from those paid leave requirements, regardless of whether the agreement addresses sick leave.

            (g)  Blanket exemption of this group of employees from the paid leave requirements was not the Council’s intent and should be rescinded without delay.

 

Sec. 3.  The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Wage Theft Prevention Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2016 be adopted after a single reading.

 

Sec. 4.  This resolution shall take effect immediately.