SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newline) —California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced April 11 that he has joined a coalition of 10 other attorneys general in urging the U.S. Labor Department to condemn the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) pilot program.
The coalition drafted a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta alleging the PAID program gives employers who have violated labor laws a way to avoid prosecution. According to the coalition, this undermines state and local labor enforcement agencies.
“Californians who depend on every penny they’ve earned to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads should have a government that’s working for them, not against them,” Becerra said in a statement. “The PAID program does the complete opposite by giving unscrupulous employers a free pass to avoid accountability for wage theft – not to mention undercutting state and local labor agencies that look out for working people .While Washington fails to protect workers, the California Department of Justice stands committed to protecting workers’ rights and enforcing the law.”
The coalition is made up of Becerra and the attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania Washington state, and the District of Columbia.