The Office of Ethics, Compliance and Labor Standards created public-private partnerships and programs to aid workers facing wage issues or other challenges in the past fiscal year, officials announced.
The San Diego County office outlined the activities in a new report highlighting accomplishments from the 2022-23 fiscal year.
The Board of Supervisors formed the Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement in May 2021 to serve as a central location for education and resources for employers and workers, to undertake research and analysis and pursue additional enforcement measures to protect workers.
Since that time, the labor office has merged with the county’s Office of Ethics and Compliance to form one office.
“Through community engagement (and) data-driven decision making” the office “works to positively impact the lives of workers and businesses in San Diego County,” said Director Branden Butler.
The report details progress made in the last fiscal year and continuing steps the department will implement moving forward.
You can read the office’s full 2022/23 report here.
Highlights include:
- Forming the 43 community stakeholder Fair Workplace Collaborative – to develop education, outreach and enforcement initiatives.
- Partnering with the the nonprofit Employee Rights Coalition (ERC) on an outreach campaign that provides direct assistance for workers who need help with wage and work-hour violations.
- Contracting with the Shaw Law Group to provide free educational seminars on employment law to nearly 2,000 small businesses in the county.
- Working in partnership with ERC and the District Attorney’s Office with victims of a Fallbrook workplace shooting. This partnership provided legal, food and benefits assistance, along with victim’s counseling.
- Proposed creation of the Workplace Justice Fund. The program, approved by the Board of Supervisors in May, will help all county workers with prevailing wage claims who have not yet been paid and those who are victims of retaliation following a complaint.
- Established the Good Faith Restaurant Owners Program. It notifies restaurants of their existing unpaid wages to workers and offers information on steps to correct the situation to maintain a county Retail Food Permit.
- Worked with the county Office of Evaluation, Performance and Analytics to build a dashboard detailing wage theft in the County.
