The US Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division has hired 100 new investigators as part of its efforts to address attrition and morale, while also committing to act on concerns raised by staffers in the wake of growing complaints about the work environment at the agency’s field offices.
Acting Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman told Bloomberg Law Wednesday that she has traveled to seven district offices over the past four weeks to meet with division staff about how the agency is functioning.
“They’ve been very forthcoming. They have not held back,” Looman said of the recent meetings with division employees.
Looman also said the agency has completed a hiring initiative announced earlier this year aimed to reverse attrition at the agency that current and former staff have blamed on workload, and in some cases, hostility from management.
“We’ve hired all 100 positions,” Looman said. Those new hires have now begun their training and mentoring programs, so that they have the “technical skills as well as the investigative skills that they need in order to really do great cases,” she said.
Labor Department leadership efforts to engage with field staff come after the number of investigators at the wage enforcement arm sunk to historic lows earlier this year.
Based on numbers provided by the agency, WHD started the year with 757 investigators, the lowest on record since fiscal 2008.
Looman...
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