SAN FRANCISCO – A new wage and hour compliance training program by industry leader ELT can help employers defuse the latest ticking time bomb – class action lawsuits for widespread violations of time recording and reporting procedures. An estimated 70% of employers are non-compliant, a fact not lost on the plaintiff’s bar, which has discovered such cases to be easy to find, easy to win and carry high reward.
“Wage and hour claims are the next tidal wave of risk exposure for employers. In fact, federal wage and hour class actions outnumber all other federal discrimination class actions combined. Employee training needs to be directed in this area – it’s not just about preventing workplace harassment and discrimination anymore,” said Shanti Atkins, President and CEO of ELT.
“What’s astonishing is how seemingly benign many of the actionable violations are: ‘super workers’ who volunteer time in good faith to get the job done; managers who fail to correct an employee’s incomplete time sheet; employees who cover each other to deal with crises at home. It’s no wonder employers are struggling with complex legal requirements that, frankly, give workers the benefit of the doubt in a lawsuit,” Atkins said.
Between 2004 and 2006, the number of federal wage and hour cases increased by 86%, and the number of multi-plaintiff cases increased by 70%. The threat is so pervasive, many organizations are now including wage and hour violation fines as a fixed line item in their budgets. Why the astonishing increase in wage and hour liability? Most employees and managers do not know the most basic information about time recording and reporting, so mistakes are excessively common and easy to uncover.
ELT’s Wage & Hour online training course is the industry’s first complete solution to help employers comply with federal and state laws, establish affirmative defenses, and ultimately, avoid lawsuits. The program educates employees about the basics of the law, as well as an organization's specific policies.
Featuring ELT’s cutting edge story-based approach to training, users click through a variety of real-life scenarios interspersed with concepts and quizzes. Characters – managers, peers, subordinates – interact directly with the learner asking for advice. With versions for both employees and managers, learners are exposed to critical policies about time keeping, and prohibited practices are clearly defined.
The highly customizable course can be seamlessly configured to reflect key state law differences as well as industry specific requirements, addressing retail, hospitality, services, office or mobile environments. A clip of the new product can be viewed at http://www.elt-inc.com/solutions/wageandhour/current/wage-and-hour.html.
"Clients come to ELT for help managing their wage and hour compliance challenges because of our approach. Our programs target subjects that represent the greatest risk, and that impact the largest number of employees. We develop our programs hand-in-hand with Littler Mendelson, the world's largest and most experienced employment law firm. The Wage and Hour course has been meticulously engineered by the top legal experts in the country - leading authorities who understand what resonates with judges, juries and regulators," Atkins said.
ELT provides employers of all sizes and across multiple industries with online compliance training of unparalleled quality. Featured in the New York Times and Fortune Small Business Magazine as one of the premier online training providers, ELT's programs have been used by more than 2 million learners in more than 1,000 leading organizations across the United States. ELT's courseware is built upon the renowned legal expertise of the global law firms Littler Mendelson and Shearman & Sterling, using Legal Engineering™ to help establish invaluable defenses to workplace litigation. Programs also feature cutting edge instructional design to provide a training experience that educates, entertains and engages. Demos of ELT's courseware can be found at www.elt-inc.com.