BISMARCK -- The number of cases the state Labor Department must investigate are growing by the hundreds and the department needs another employee, the labor commissioner told Senate budget writers Monday.
Lisa Fair McEvers said her 11-member department's staff is consistently working 70 hours of overtime investigating cases and experienced people are starting to quit because of the growing workload. Gov. John Hoeven's budget for the Labor Department included adding one compliance investigator but the House cut the position in February.
She asked the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday to restore the position.
An example of the rising caseload, she said is in the area unpaid wages claims. In the first 18 months of the 2005-07 biennium, the Labor Department resolved 391 cases. In the first 18 months of the current biennium, the department resolved 533 claims.
The amount of human rights discrimination cases and housing discrimination cases the Labor Department has handled is also increasing, she said, and the department must complete the cases in 100 days under federal rules.
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McEvers said that with the current trends, she expects housing and human rights discrimination cases her office will handle in the 2009-11 biennium will increase by 12 percent.
The delays don't just affect her staff, she said. "Justice delayed is justice denied" for the claimants who have been discriminated against.
"There is a price tag associated with an understaffed office, beyond the cost of overtime in dollars and cents," McEvers told the senators. Two longtime investigators have quit recently because of the ever-increasing numbers of cases they are expected to complete to satisfy federal rules under which the state must operate.
"They take with them years of experience and expertise it takes time to replace," she said. "Just asking my staff to work longer and harder will not be effective in the long term."
She said that when a new person is hired, it takes a "considerable amount of time and training" to bring new investigators up to speed so they can take on their own caseload. In the meantime, the other investigators must carry a larger load, usually in the form of overtime.
When she recently interviewed for a replacement investigator, the most qualified applicant withdrew when she heard what the Labor Department would pay. The applicant is already working as a paralegal in another state agency and earning $1,200 more per month than the Labor Department would pay.
