UPDATE BELOW For much of my career as a workplace journalist I’ve been informing readers about their rights and often recommending that they seek help from the Department of Labor.

Well, many of you who may have taken me up on the offer may have ended up with a big zero.

Turns out the labor department’s wage and hour division, the unit that’s supposed to help workers who aren’t paid in accordance with the nation’s labor laws, has dropped the ball, big time!

The Government Accountability Office conducted undercover investigations of this unit and found the agency screwed up in nine out of 10 of the cases.

Basically, undercover investigators from the GAO called the labor department’s wage and hour division posing as workers and employers. These investigators clearly informed labor department enforcers of illegal activity such as not paying overtime, not paying minimum wage, not paying someone’s earned income, and these enforcers didn’t do what they are paid to do — enforce.

They actually told workers to file lawsuits and didn’t make it clear to them what steps they could take to fight wage and hour injustices through the agency, which is what they’re supposed to do.

This from the Associated Press today:

When the nation’s most vulnerable workers try to find justice at the Labor Department, they are often met with inadequate responses, delays and slipshod work.

That’s the finding of an undercover investigation into the agency’s wage and hour division.

The Government Accountability Office says agency officials often responded too slowly to complaints, failed to record them and in one instance lied about investigative work that wasn’t performed.

GAO investigators posed as 10 workers and companies to test the agency, which handled just one of the 10 fake complaints properly.

Here’s a link to some of the calls on ABC News.

One labor department enforcer actually tells a worker that they should line up a new job first before pursuing any recourse through the agency because she couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t get fired.

Hello, the law is supposed to protect workers from being retaliated against for seeking what they are rightfully owed under the law.

This is a disgrace, and I want to apologize to all the workers out there who got little to no help from an agency with a supposed mission to help you all.

Right now more than ever workers are illegally being taken advantage of. Employers are pressuring employees into not filing for overtime even though they are working extra hours; salaried employees are being forced to take ongoing furloughs, something that’s a no no under labor laws; and many aren’t even being paid minimum wage.

All this in the name of a bad economy. Workers feel pressured to accept these practices because they are threatened by employers that if they don’t submit they may end up on the unemployment line.

With no one to turn to in government where do workers go? Employees may have to take matters into their own hands, band together with other workers, and protest unfair wage and hour practices in the workplace.

Congress is holding hearings today on this very subject and we should all pay attention and push our legislators to put the screws to a labor department that seems to have abdicated its enforcement responsibilities.

The House Education and Labor Committee is conducting the hearing into what is being called “wage theft” and it will review the GAO findings.

Enough rolling over. Right? Just because companies are struggling doesn’t mean they should be allowed to break the law.

UPDATE:
Here’s a statement released by the new Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis today in reaction to the GAO report:

As secretary of labor, I am committed to ensuring that every worker is paid at least the minimum wage, that those who work overtime are properly compensated, that child labor laws are strictly enforced and that every worker is provided a safe and healthful environment.