[Tall-Corn] Fw: [Ohio-Talk] Press Release: Court upheld a 2016 decision from the United States Department of Labor that found three individuals employed by Seneca Re-Ad Industries, Inc. are not disabled for the work they perform and cannot be paid less than minimum wage.

Wed Jan 17 19:03:51 UTC 2024

I know this isn't iowa related, but considering the fighting going on to 
swat this down, I thought yall would be interested in this from us here 
in Ohio.

Shane Popplestone
President of the Ohio Association of blind students
Co-chair of the ohio newsline committee
member of the Grater Akron Chapter
member of Ohio Association of Guide Dog users
spopplestone.nfb at gmail.com
234-716-2208
You can live the life you want!

------ Forwarded Message ------
>From "smturner.234--- via Ohio-Talk" <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
To smturner.234 at gmail.com
Cc smturner.234 at gmail.com
Date 1/17/2024 12:58:04 PM
Subject [Ohio-Talk] Press Release: Court upheld a 2016 decision from the 
United States Department of Labor that found three individuals employed 
by Seneca Re-Ad Industries, Inc. are not disabled for the work they 
perform and cannot be paid less than minimum wage.

Release Date

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Type

Press Release <https://nfb.org/press-release-types/press-release>

Category

National <https://nfb.org/press-releases/national>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Court Ruling Affirms Decision Awarding Back Pay and Liquidated Damages 
to Individuals Who Were Unlawfully Paid Less Than Minimum Wage
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jan. 10 2024 – In a ruling handed down last week by the 
United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (Seneca 
Re-Ad Industries, Inc. v. Secretary of the Department of Labor et al., 
3:20-cv-02325-JJH), the Court upheld a 2016 decision from the United 
States Department of Labor that found three individuals employed by 
Seneca Re-Ad Industries, Inc. are not disabled for the work they perform 
and cannot be paid less than minimum wage. The Court affirmed the 
Department’s award of back pay and liquidated damages to Pamela Steward, 
Ralph “Joe” Magers, and Mark Felton. Ms. Steward, Mr. Magers, and Mr. 
Felton were represented by attorneys from Disability Rights Ohio and 
Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP.

Seneca Re-Ad Industries, Inc. operates a sheltered workshop in Seneca 
County, Ohio that is overseen by the Seneca County Board of 
Developmental Disabilities and that performs work for Roppe Corporation, 
an international flooring company.

“This court action is a clear victory for those working to reverse 
subminimum wage, and
affirms our belief that having a disability does not make one unworthy 
of fair pay,” said Kerstin Sjoberg, DRO executive director.

In November 2015, with the support of the National Federation of the 
Blind, Ms. Steward, Mr. Magers, and Mr. Felton filed a petition with the 
Department of Labor challenging their receipt of subminimum wages. In a 
precedent-setting decision, the Department of Labor explained that 
employers cannot rely on a provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act 
that allows individuals with disabilities to be paid less than the 
minimum wage without clear evidence that an individual’s disability 
impacts his or her productivity.

“The National Federation of the Blind has fought the payment of 
subminimum wages to the blind and other workers with disabilities since 
our founding,” said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation 
of the Blind. “Now, after nearly a decade of litigation, a federal court 
has affirmed, for the first time, that disability by itself cannot be 
used to demonstrate lower productivity even under the terms of Section 
14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. This ruling points to the truth 
that we have always known: the subminimum wage exemption is simply a 
manifestation of society’s low expectations and false assumptions 
regarding the capacity of workers with disabilities. We applaud the 
court for recognizing this truth as it applies to the courageous workers 
who took their case to the Department of Labor, but we will not rest 
until no blind or disabled worker can be victimized by this antiquated, 
discriminatory, and immoral practice.”

In addition to affirming that decision, the Court rejected Seneca 
Re-Ad’s argument that the Administrative Law Judge who ruled on Ms. 
Steward’s, Mr. Magers’s, and Mr. Felton’s petition was not properly 
appointed under the U.S. Constitution.

“Eight years ago, a Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge 
affirmed what Pamela Steward, Joe Magers, and Mark Felton have known all 
along: that they are not disabled for the work they perform at Seneca 
Re-Ad, and that they cannot be paid less than the minimum wage,” said 
Kevin Docherty, a partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy. “The Court’s 
ruling, upholding the Department of Labor’s landmark decision, is an 
important step forward in the fight to curtail payment of subminimum 
wages to individuals with disabilities.”

About Disability Rights Ohio
Disability Rights Ohio is the federally and state designated Protection 
and Advocacy System and Client Assistance Program for the state of Ohio. 
The mission of Disability Rights Ohio is to advocate for the human, 
civil and legal rights of people with disabilities in Ohio. Disability 
Rights Ohio provides legal advocacy and rights protection to a wide 
range of people with disabilities. Find more information at 
www.disabilityrightsohio.org. <https://www.disabilityrightsohio.org/>

###

About the National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind, headquartered in Baltimore, 
defends the rights of blind people of all ages and provides information 
and support to families with blind children, older Americans who are 
losing vision, and more. Founded in 1940, the NFB is the transformative 
membership and advocacy organization of blind Americans with affiliates, 
chapters, and divisions in the fifty states, Washington DC, and Puerto 
Rico. We believe in the hopes and dreams of blind people and work 
together to transform them into reality. Learn more about our many 
programs and initiatives at nfb.org <https://nfb.org/>.

CONTACT

Chris Danielsen

Director of Public Relations

National Federation of the Blind

410-659-9314, extension 2330

410-262-1281 (cell)

cdanielsen at nfb.org

National Federation of the Blind. Click to return to Homepage.
<https://nfb.org/>

-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/tall-corn_nfbnet.org/attachments/20240117/e02d86f5/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 86174 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/tall-corn_nfbnet.org/attachments/20240117/e02d86f5/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Ohio-Talk mailing list
Ohio-Talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Ohio-Talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org/spopplestone.nfb%40gmail.com