For instance, the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which enforces workplace safety and sits on the task force, has not examined workers' use of chemicals or working conditions at home because it acts only on complaints, a spokesman said. Neither the state nor the federal labor officials plan to levy penalties on companies that have committed violations in this investigation. Even though these agencies usually do not levy fines, critics say penalties are the only way to deter companies from the practice in the future. Federal regulations allow penalties up to the amount of the back wages and interest. A statute of limitations also restricts state investigators to probe companies as far back as 1997.
Federal investigators examine only the previous two years.
This leaves out thousands of workers who worked at piecework rates over the last two decades. For example, nearly 20 former employees have told the Mercury News last June that Solectron Corp. had used home piecework arrangements dating back to the 1980s. However, state investigators said they could find no violations at Solectron since 1997. Pulnix, for example, said it is abandoning piecework. To make up for work that was completed at home, the company has hired more employees and offers employees overtime to work on its premises, company officials said.