As discussed in our previous post (available here), the DC Department of Employment Services (“DOES”) announced an upcoming enforcement program called The Zip Code Project (the “Project”). Now, DOES has released a notice to employers relating to the Project (available here).
DOES investigators will be conducting city-wide foot patrols of DC businesses to ensure compliance with DC’s wage statutes and other worker protection statutes. Investigators will randomly inspect employer pay records and notice postings to ensure that they are in compliance with the Wage Theft Prevention Amendment Act (the “Act”). After the inspection, if applicable, employers will receive a list of violations and will be given thirty (30) days to remedy those violations.
Additionally, DOES has released Spanish-language pay notice forms for the Act. Employers are required to provide the pay notice forms in Spanish if the employee’s primary language is Spanish. The new template pay notice is available here. Similarly, DOES has released a Spanish summary of the Act, which DOES has stated must also be posted in the workplace and distributed to Spanish-speaking employees. The Spanish summary of the Act is available here.
As a reminder, all DC employers must be in full compliance with the Act by May 27, 2015. This means that employers must provide all pay notices to existing employees no later than this date.