Labor levies $500 fine on KWAW-FM

KWAW-FM has been fined $500 for failure to post timely declarations for the job positions of domestic helper and radio announcer on the Department of Labor website. Half of this $500 will be suspended for two years, and then extinguished provided that the radio station complies with DOL regulations.

Labor’s Enforcement section sought a maximum fine for KWAW-FM’s alleged bad faith efforts in hiring an employee, and their failure to post a timely declaration for its radio announcer position. But Labor hearing officer Jerry M. Cody charged no bad faith conduct, and gave the radio station a partially suspended monetary fine.

In June, the radio station posted announcements for a job as domestic helper and three positions as radio announcer on Labor’s website.

Each announcement received one online response from a U.S.-qualified job applicant.

The applicant for domestic helper was contacted, but after a brief discussion, the helper said she was not interested in the job.

As for the radio announcer position, KWAW-FM contacted a prior employer of the applicant and heard negatively about the applicant’s work and character. Because of this, KWAW-FM chose not to interview the applicant and did not file a written response to the posting online.

The radio station ended up filing petitions to renew the CW-1 workers at the station, who already held the jobs for domestic helper and radio announcer.

Enforcement charged that the radio station violated Labor regulations by not filing written response to the job applicants. The radio station claimed however that they were unaware of this obligation, and promised to do so in the future.

Enforcement also alleged that the radio station engaged in bad faith conduct when they decided not to interview the job applicant for radio announcer because of a previous employer’s comments.

However, Cody found that the employer’s decision not to interview the applicant “was misguided, but not indicative of bad faith.”

According to Cody, the employer “should have interviewed the applicant and given her an opportunity to explain her experience in her former job” instead of relying on the prior employer’s word.

Cody said that the employer did show effort to consider the applicant, but “made an unfortunate decision to shortcut the process.”