Section 290.621

Title XVIII LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Chapter 290

Effective - 05 Nov 2024, see footnote   

  290.621.  Compliance and complaint procedures — outreach program. — 1.  The department may investigate and ascertain compliance with sections 290.600 through 290.642, establish and implement a system to receive complaints regarding noncompliance with sections 290.600 through 290.642 and to investigate and attempt to resolve complaints between the complainant and the subject of the complaint, and establish additional means of enforcement, including requiring by subpoena the testimony of witnesses and production of books, records, and other evidence relative to any matter under investigation or hearing, issuing notices of violation, holding hearings on notices of violation, making determinations, recovering unpaid earned sick time, and imposing fines for willful violations of up to five hundred dollars^* per day of each day of a continuing violation.  A final decision of the department is subject to review in accordance with the provisions of chapter 536.

  2.  The department may develop and implement an outreach program to inform employees, parents, and persons who are under the care of a health care provider about the availability of earned paid sick time under sections 290.600 through 290.642.  This program may include the distribution of notices and other written materials to child care and elder care providers, domestic violence shelters, schools, hospitals, community health centers and other health care providers in Missouri.

  3.  A municipality, county, city, town, or village may adopt ordinances, rules, and regulations to investigate and ascertain compliance with sections 290.600 through 290.642, establish and implement a system to receive complaints regarding noncompliance with sections 290.600 through 290.642 and to investigate and attempt to resolve complaints between the complainant and the subject of the complaint, and establish additional means of enforcement, with respect to employers within, or employees performing work while physically present in, the geographic boundaries of the municipality, county, city, town, or village.  Any such ordinance, rule, or regulation shall be consistent with this law and any department rules or regulations and system for compliance and enforcement.  The municipality, county, city, town, or village may exercise such powers as allowed by any applicable charter or ordinance, including requiring by subpoena the testimony of witnesses and production of books, records, and other evidence relative to any matter under investigation or hearing, issuing notices of violation, holding hearings on notices of violation, making determinations, recovering unpaid earned sick time, and imposing fines for willful violations of up to the maximum allowed for an ordinance violation.  Before investigating or seeking to resolve any complaint between the complainant and the subject of the complaint, the municipality, county, city, town, or village shall give notice to the department with a copy of the complaint and, within fourteen^** days of such notice, the department may intervene as of right and participate in the matter to ensure that the complaint is being investigated and resolved in the interest of effective enforcement of sections 290.600 through 290.642 or, alternatively, the department may institute its own proceedings in which case the municipality, county, city, town, or village shall refrain from acting on the matter so long as the complaint is being investigated and resolved in the interest of effective enforcement of sections 290.600 through 290.642.  If the department does not, within fourteen^** days, intervene or instigate its own proceedings, the municipality, county, city, town, or village may, without the department, investigate and attempt to resolve the complaint and take other additional means within its power to enforce sections 290.600 through 290.642 against the subject of the complaint.  In no event shall an employer be subject to compliance proceedings arising out of a single set of facts after having already been subjected to a final compliance order by another governmental entity.

  4.  Nothing in this section shall be interpreted or applied, either expressly or through practical necessity, to require the department, a municipality, county, city, town, or village to conduct investigations and ascertain compliance with sections 290.600 through 290.642, to establish and implement a system to receive or resolve complaints, to establish additional means of enforcement, or to conduct outreach and education, including the creation of notices and other written materials, concerning sections 290.600 through 290.642, if it requires the appropriation of funds to cover the costs of such acts.

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(L. 2024 Adopted by Initiative, Proposition A, November 5, 2024)

*Number "$500" appears in Proposition A.

**Number "14" appears in Proposition A.