Housing Company Pays Back Wages to Georgia Employee Denied Paid Family Leave to Care for Child During Pandemic

SAVANNAH, GA – Atlantic Housing Foundation – a non-profit operator of affordable housing communities in Savannah, Georgia – has paid $3,920 in back wages. The company wrongly denied paid leave under the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA) to an employee who missed work to care for a child whose school closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) found that Atlantic Housing violated the requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) by denying the employee paid family leave and later terminating the employee. After WHD contacted Atlantic Housing, the employer agreed to reinstate the employee, pay the back wages and comply with the FFCRA’s requirements in the future.

The FFCRA’s emergency paid sick leave requirements provide workers up to two weeks of paid leave and the EFMLEA provides up to an additional 10 weeks of paid leave at two-thirds their regular rate of pay to care for their children whose school or childcare provider is unavailable due to the coronavirus.

“The U.S. Department of Labor is protecting the American workforce during the coronavirus pandemic by ensuring employers comply with all of the requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Steven Salazar, in Atlanta, Georgia. “These protections benefit workers and employers alike. We encourage employers with questions about their responsibilities to reach out to us for information.”

The FFCRA helps the U.S. combat and defeat the workplace effects of the coronavirus by giving tax credits to American businesses with fewer than 500 employees either to provide employees with paid leave for the employee’s own health needs or to care for family members. Please visit WHD’s “Quick Benefits Tips” for information about how much leave workers may qualify to use, and the wages employers must pay. The law enables employers to provide paid leave reimbursed by tax credits, while at the same time ensuring that workers are not forced to choose between their paychecks and the public health measures needed to combat the virus.

WHD continues to provide updated information on its website and through extensive outreach efforts to ensure that workers and employers have the information they need about the benefits and protections of this new law.

Learn more about the laws enforced by WHD, or call 866-4US-WAGE.

For further information about the coronavirus, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

WHD’s mission is to promote and achieve compliance with labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the nation’s workforce. WHD enforces federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. WHD also enforces the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, wage garnishment provisions of the Consumer Credit Protection Act, and a number of employment standards and worker protections as provided in several immigration related statutes. Additionally, WHD administers and enforces the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act and other statutes applicable to federal contracts for construction and for the provision of goods and services.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.