Page 177 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

liable to an employee for any amount of unpaid minimum wages. When a judgment is ren-
dered in favor of any employee in any action brought to recover unpaid wages, such judg-
ment must include among such wages an amount equal to the combined cost of liquidated
damages, the cost of the suit (including reasonable attorneys’ fees), and a civil penalty of
not less than $1,000 or more than $10,000, 90 percent of which civil penalty must be paid
to the State. On October 1 of each year, beginning October 1, 2008, the minimum and max-
imum civil penalties must be adjusted by the State Department of Labor to reflect changes
in the CPI-W or a successor index, as calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Worker privacy. State Public Law 2005, c.381, Section 3, was amended to further pro-
tect the personal contact information records of public employees. Personal contact informa-
tion is considered confidential, and the term means “home address, home phone number,
home facsimile number, e-mail address, cellular phone, and pager number.” Elected officials
are not considered public employees under the amendment. Notwithstanding any other pro-
vision of law, complaints and investigative files that relate to court and judicial security are
confidential; however, they can be disseminated to another criminal justice agency. Ap-
plications, resumes, and letters and notes of reference, other than those letters and notes of
reference expressly submitted in confidence, pertaining to an applicant who has been hired
are public records after the applicant is hired, except for the personal contact information.
Upon the request of the employing agency, the State director of the Bureau of HR shall make
the determination as to whether the release of certain personal information not otherwise
protected by law is permissible. The records and proceedings of the State agency-operated
technology centers are public, except for (a) any record obtained or developed by a technol-
ogy center prior to the receipt of a written application or proposal in a form acceptable to
the center for assistance from the center; (b) any record pertaining to an application or pro-
posal that has been received, unless that record is confidential under another provision of
the law; (c) a peer review, analysis, or other document related to the evaluation of a grant
application or proposal; and (d) a record that the individual or center requests to be desig-
nated confidential and that the center determines contains proprietary information which,
if released, would be considered competitively harmful and could impair the center’s abil-
ity to get other proposals or similar necessary information in the future. Data submitted and
deemed confidential by the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may
not be available for public inspection. A person who intentionally or knowingly discloses
confidential information in violation of this section commits a Class E crime.

MARYLAND

Department of labor. The enforcement authority of the State commissioner of labor and
industry has been expanded. The commissioner may now initiate an investigation of a com-
plaint that an employment agency has failed to submit a penal bond as required by statute.
If, after investigation, the commissioner finds that the employment agency has failed to sub-
mit the required penal bond, the commissioner shall give written notice that requires the
agency to complete certain actions within 15 days of receipt of the notice. The employment
agency must (1) submit the bond or (2) show written cause why the agency is not required

160 The H R Toolkit