Many prominent New York trainers have been hit with additional fines from the New York State Department of Labor for what the government says are labor violations and unpaid wages, despite several of those conditioner having previously negotiated settlements with the federal Department of Labor.
A release from the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stated that wagers were recovered from Chad Brown, Kiaran McLaughlin, Linda Rice and Jimmy Jerkens. Additionally, Doodnauth Shivmangal and Leo O'Brien have been given orders of payment by the state. State officials quote the total amount for the six cases at close to $1 million for 350 backstretch employees.
Brown, McLaughlin and Rice had already been hit with investigations by the federal Department of Labor prior to the state stepping in. Brown's federal settlement was $1.6 million with 182 affected employees and he was fined another $526,000 by the state of New York for violations affecting 119 employees. Brown's state audit covered a one-year period from September 2017 to September 2018, while his federal audit covered three years prior to that.
Rice settled her federal Department of Labor dispute last November at $110,000 and the state tacked on an additional $133,000 in penalties and back wages, which was settled this past September.
“The bottom line with the Department of Labor is that horse racing has always been an industry where people are paid on a salary basis, but times have changed,” Rice told the TDN. “The New York state and federal governments insist this has to become an hourly wage industry. We made the transition from salary to hourly wage eight to 10 years ago, but it is very difficult to manage unless you have a time clock installed in your business. The sign-in time sheets we have used for many years are not satisfactory record keeping for the Department of Labor and are indefensible in hourly wage disputes. I personally have installed facial recognition time clocks at both of my locations and I have encouraged all other trainers to do so as well because it is the only protection we have.”
Rice added, “Another frustrating aspect of the Department of Labor issues is that it doesn't appear that other jurisdictions are under the same scrutiny that we are here in New York.”
Many New York horsemen have echoed Rice's sentiments throughout these ongoing Department of Labor issues. The structure of the racing industry makes hourly wages difficult to track even with the time clock due to the irregular schedules of grooms and hotwalkers, as well as the racetrack setting, where the employees live in dormitories adjacent or very close to the barns in which they work.
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