Over the weekend, the Portland Press Herald released a report detailing how Maine’s Department of Labor (MDOL) under Governor Janet Mills has ramped up its efforts to protect Maine workers from wage theft, child labor, and hour violations. The report noted that the new strict enforcement practices are a “significant departure from past practices at the agency,” a reference to the hostility towards workers of Mills’ predecessor, Paul LePage.
During his time in office, LePage–who once said “I don’t care about labor laws or protections”-- did little to intervene on behalf of Maine workers against illegal workplace practices. He:
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Oversaw an anemic Department of Labor that in his last two years in office returned to workers less than half the unpaid wages recovered by the Mills administration last year, despite estimates suggesting Maine workers may have lost up to $30 million in 2017 due to wage theft.
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Dialed back Maine’s child labor protections.
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Spent years fighting any form of minimum wage increase for Maine workers, even after voters approved an increase in a 2016 referendum.
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Vetoed a bill to ensure Maine kept up with federal requirements on tracking and reporting violations of workplace safety laws
“Governor Mills is protecting Maine’s workers from wage theft and other labor law violations,” said Drew Gattine, Chair of the Maine Democratic Party. “It’s really been a breath of fresh air compared to Paul LePage, who fought tooth and nail against any measure to improve working conditions in this state. We can’t let LePage drag us back to an era where the Governor’s office simply left Maine workers behind."
According to the report, Mills’ administration has ramped up enforcement of labor law violations by hiring twice as many violation inspectors, making data about violating employers public, and shutting down serial violators of state labor law. The measures have resulted in an amount of recovered unpaid wages that has “skyrocketed.”
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