‘Auditors Report: state Department of Labor Didn’t Assign Hundreds of Cases for Investigation’ | CT News Junkie

From the CT News Junkie:

The state Department of Labor’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division received or initiated nearly 850 complaint cases as of May 11, 2023, but they were not assigned for investigation, according to an audit report released this week by the state Department of Auditors of Public Accounts.

One case, the audit report states, had not been assigned for nearly a year. The pending and unassigned status accounted for 41% of the estimated 2,000 WWSD cases as of May 11, 2023, according to the report.

The auditors submitted the report for the fiscal years ending June 30, 2021 and 2022.

“Our audit identified internal control deficiencies; instances of noncompliance with laws, regulations, or policies; and a need for improvement in practices and procedures that warrant management’s attention,” according to the 27-page report.

An audit summary lists six findings of the report – the actual report lists eight – along with recommendations on how to improve.

According to the report, the public can file complaints about labor law violations, such as unpaid wages, through an internet portal to the Wage and Workplace Standards Division (WWSD). That division then can decide whether to start investigations if they believe there may be violations.

“WWSD processes seven categories of complaints or violations, that each have significant procedural differences. Those differences complicate case assignment, caseload balancing, and processing efficiency,” according to the report. “Having clear performance measurement standards and appropriate information system reports allow an agency to effectively track its workload and take prompt action.”

These sorts of delays could result in people, in cases of unpaid wages, not getting a timely resolution and restitution of those wages. “Extended delays may decrease the probability of collection in cases in which the employer ceases operations,” the report states.

Changes in the state and federal law contributed to the backlog as well as a lack of staffing, according to the report, and a legislative request to get additional staffing in 2023 did not pass.

Sen. Rob Sampson, Ranking Senator on the Labor and Public Employees Committee, and Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding issued the following statement regarding the audit:

“Assistance delayed is assistance denied. It’s unacceptable, and this is not the first time that the state Department of Labor has been warned of this issue. These nearly year-long delays have real life impacts for employees and families across Connecticut. The Democrat-controlled department’s response to the audit is to blame the Democrat-controlled state legislature. Finger pointing is not a solution. The auditors also cited CTDOL for multiple inadequate internal controls and oversight.

“Fixing these lingering issues could potentially save Connecticut taxpayers a lot of money, so what’s their game plan? Improved management of this state agency is clearly necessary.”

Through the report, the auditors suggested that the DOL improve its tracking procedures to address the backlog.

While the DOL responded to auditors by saying they submitted another legislative request for more staff in 2024 that didn’t go anywhere, they did agree that processing delays could negatively impact those seeking wage restitution.

In another finding, the auditors’ analysis revealed that there were 20 occasions in which nine employees charged holiday time on nonholidays. DOL employees incorrectly charged $5,008 for 119 hours of holiday time, according to the report.

“Upon receiving our notification, the department corrected the coding,” the report states.

DOL responded that they agreed with this finding, but further explained that the payroll unit handled a significant increase in DOL staff during the pandemic, and a spike in unemployment insurance cases, but has since been able to resume holiday time audits as the unit’s staffing has stabilized.

The auditors’ report also cites the DOL for not having an updated disaster recovery plan, which “helps minimize the risks of negative business impacts in the event of an interruption to information technology services.”

The past plan was prepared in 2014 and tested in 2019, according to the report, but the department did not get that plan to necessary staff.

DOL responded that updates and testing were impacted by the state’s transition of several applications to a cloud-based system.

“This was a massive and complex effort that experienced major disruptions due to the pandemic yet was still successfully launched on July 5, 2022,” according to the DOL’s response contained in the audit report.

The auditors further found that the DOL failed to submit nine of 18 statutorily required reports. “These reports are necessary to facilitate executive and legislative oversight of DOL programs,” according to the auditors.

DOL disagreed with this finding, according to the report, adding that the audit period extended through the pandemic when the agency handled more than 1.5 million unemployment applications as well as eight additional federal programs.

“There is no correlation between late filing and diminished oversight as during this same time period CTDOL increased how often it reported out to state leaders and legislators, participated in numerous legislative public hearings, regularly disseminated and posted press releases and other materials, held regular media availabilities and press conferences, and participated in Governor Lamont’s media and public outreach,” according to DOL’s response.

Of the eight findings highlighted in the report, four have been previously reported in past auditor reports.