Training Thru Placement to pay $300K in back wages to workers with disabilities

TRAINING THRU Placement Inc. has agreed to pay $300,000 to more than 100 employees, including workers with disabilities, as part of a settlement agreement announced by the U.S. Department of Labor.
TRAINING THRU Placement Inc. has agreed to pay $300,000 to more than 100 employees, including workers with disabilities, as part of a settlement agreement announced by the U.S. Department of Labor.

NORTH PROVIDENCE – Training Thru Placement Inc. has agreed to pay $300,000 to more than 100 employees, including workers with disabilities, as part of a settlement agreement announced by the U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday.
The federal department said that between June 1, 2010, and Jan. 31, 2013, the company violated minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The settlement also stipulated that the department retroactively revoke certificates that allowed the company, subject to specific conditions, to pay workers with disabilities less than the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.
“TTP failed to meet its responsibilities under the law to some of the most vulnerable workers we see. This settlement, plus the earlier revocation of its certificates, resulted from our ongoing commitment to remedy labor violations and protect the rights of workers with disabilities,” Mark Watson, Northeast regional administrator for the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, said in a statement. “The law provides workers with disabilities an opportunity to work and receive a paycheck for that work. We will use available enforcement tools to prevent employers from exploiting workers.”
The department alleged that TTP failed to properly determine a subminimum wage for each worker, as allowed under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act; properly record and pay employees for all hours worked; determine the prevailing wage rates for workers performing similar work in the area; and conduct appropriate time studies to determine subminimum wage rates.
The department also alleged that the company falsified documents to mislead investigators, according to a press release about the settlement.
The agency referred the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which then entered into an interim settlement agreement with the state and with Providence. The school-based sheltered workshop at the Harold A. Birch Vocational Program at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence was the point of origin for many people entering TTP.

The agreement resolved violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act for approximately 200 Rhode Islanders with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Based on the severity and willful nature of the violations, the Wage and Hour Division issued a retroactive revocation of TTP’s authorization to pay subminimum wages between June 1, 2010, and Jan. 31, 2013, during which time the company was operating in violation of the FLSA. All FLSA-covered employees performing work for TTP during that period are owed no less than the federal minimum wage for all hours worked.
The agency said that TTP has taken corrective action to comply with the law by implementing significant changes, including replacing its board of directors and removing or replacing management and administrative staff in charge when the violations occurred. Training Thru Placement also contracted with a new provider of services, FedCap Rehabilitation Services, to assume day-to-day operations, hire new staff and provide training to ensure understanding and compliance with Section 14(c) of the FLSA.
The FLSA, in general, requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates of pay, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per workweek.
Section14(c) of the act allows employers, after receiving a certificate of authorization from the division, to pay wages less than the federal minimum wage to workers with disabilities when their disabilities impair their productive capacities for the work being performed.

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