Delaware General Assembly

Lieu/Substituted 6/9/22

The General Assembly has ended, the current status is the final status.

SS 1 for SB 35 w/ SA 1

5/11/22

Walsh

Rep. Osienski

Sen. Ennis, Mantzavinos, Sokola, Townsend
Reps. Griffith, Longhurst, Matthews, Mitchell, Morrison, K. Williams

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 AND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LABOR.

This Act defines specific violations of wage payment and collection laws under Chapter 11 of Title 19, as wage theft and provides specific penalties for these violations, including a new a new criminal offense of wage theft, with a mechanism for the Department of Labor to refer completed investigations to the Department of Justice for prosecution. Clearly defining wage theft protects Delaware workers and Delaware taxpayers from employers who pay their employees “under the table” because this practice results in lost tax revenue to this State and exposes employees to personal risk in the areas of unemployment compensation and workplace injuries. The civil penalties collected for violations that are wage theft must be used for the enforcement of wage payment and collection laws under Chapter 11 of Title 19 and prosecution of the offense of wage theft under § 841D of Title 11. This Act also adds a definition of the term "independent contractor" to Chapter 11 of Title 19 to clarify when an individual is not an employee. In addition, this Act makes non-substantive changes to the definitions sections of several chapters in Title 19, so that terms that are used consistently with the same meaning are not repeatedly defined in multiple chapters and makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 28 of Article IV of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to give criminal jurisdiction to inferior courts.

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Takes effect upon being signed into law

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