The Modern Workplace
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced a final rule revising its guidance on how to analyze whether a worker is properly classified as an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The final rule rescinds the DOL’s 2021 independent contractor rule and takes effect on March 11, 2024.
The FLSA requires, among other things, covered employers to pay nonexempt employees at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay for every hour worked over 40 in a workweek. These FLSA protections do not apply to independent ...
On August 30, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced a proposed rule intended to “restore and extend overtime protections to 3.6 million salaried employees.” If finalized, the proposed rule would raise the salary levels that must be paid to certain employees for them to be exempt from overtime pay requirements under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The full Lathrop GPM Client Alert on the subject can be found here.
Specifics of Proposed Rule
The proposed rule, if finalized, would raise the guaranteed weekly salary that must be paid to “white ...
For federal government contractors and their applicable subcontractors, your OFCCP Portal registration/certification deadline is now here for 2023 affirmative action plans (AAPs) – it is Thursday, June 29, 2023! The OFCCP has not extended this deadline as of yet and has indicated that, unlike last year, it most likely will not do so this year – so be alert. Previous updates on OFCCP compliance: January 26, 2023; June 24, 2022; January 28, 2022
Regarding the submission of the EEO-1 Report, an annual obligation of federal contractors and their applicable subcontractors, the EEOC ...
On February 9, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (DOL) issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2023-1 (FAB) to help employers (1) better understand their wage and hour obligations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) with regard to their non-exempt teleworkers; and (2) how to apply the eligibility rules under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when employees telework. Although the FAB does not break new ground or change the FLSA or the FMLA and their regulations, it does provide guidance on the DOL’s enforcement positions going forward.
Highly ...
Last Friday, January 20, 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued its newest Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (affectionately known as CSAL) for applicable supply and service federal contractors and their applicable subcontractors. The OFCCP definition of “federal contractor” is relatively straightforward - generally a single $50,000 contract with a federal agency - but the OFCCP definition of an applicable subcontractor to a federal contractor can be much more subtle in application and could be difficult to ascertain.
The OFCCP ...
On January 1, 2023, the amendments to the Illinois One Day Rest in Seven Act (“ODRISA”) took effect, and the changes are significant. Employers with one or more employees in Illinois should take note of these new amendments to avoid costly penalties.
New Rest Breaks
The amended ODRISA requires covered employers to provide non-exempt employees with a minimum of 24 hours of rest within every consecutive seven-day period. Prior to January 1, 2023, the ODRISA required employers to provide eligible employees with at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in every “calendar ...
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) withdrew its COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (“ETS”) as of January 26, 2022. The ETS had mandated that employers with 100 or more employees require all employees to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or wear face coverings and undergo weekly testing in lieu of vaccination. This action came shortly after the United States Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the ETS.
Although OSHA has withdrawn the ETS as an emergency temporary standard, it has announced that it ...
If your organization is a federal government contractor or subcontractor with annual affirmative action plan requirements, you need to be aware of some recent, important developments.
On December 2, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) issued an announcement introducing its new online contractor “portal.” The OFCCP describes the “portal” as a platform through which covered federal government contractors and subcontractors must register and then subsequently annually “certify” whether they ...
The new federal administration continues to put its stamp on the development and enforcement of wage and hour laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Recently, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new Field Assistance Bulletin (Bulletin 2021), revoking a Trump administration policy relating to the practice of seeking liquidated damages in pre-litigation settlement discussions.
Employers who violate the FLSA provisions relating to minimum wage, overtime compensation, and protections for tipped employees, are liable for the unpaid wages or tips as well as an equal ...
As the number of people working remotely decreases while employees start returning to their places of employment, or decide to make home their permanent office, a refresher on the requirements around the compensability of travel time to and from the workplace could prove helpful.
The general rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is that employees must be compensated whenever they are working. However, pursuant to the Portal-to-Portal Act, time spent traveling to and from the actual place where the employee performs his or her principal activities, or “commuting ...
On May 18, 2020, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) implemented a final rule arguably giving employers more flexibility in the retail and service industries to exempt certain employees from overtime pay requirements.
Generally, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employers pay employees at an overtime rate for time worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek, unless the employees are exempt under Sections 7 or 13 of the statute. One of these exemptions applies to employees who work for a retail or service establishment if: (i) the employees regular rate of pay ...
On Thursday of last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Alexander Acosta as the 27th Secretary of Labor, filling the final open seat in President Donald Trumps cabinet. With its secretary in place, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will now be able to move forward with decisions on two major rule-making issues.
The most widely watched decision to be made by the DOL is whether to defend or abandon the Obama Administrations FLSA rule that would, if effective, significantly increase the minimum salary required for white collar exempt employees. As we reported earlier, that rule was blocked by ...
When President Trump was elected in November 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) was fighting ...
For those in the employment law and human resources fields, there are lots of moving targets to track this holiday season. Two of those moving targets include the temporary block placed on the U.S. Department of Labors (DOL) new federal overtime rules and a pending legal challenge to a new OSHA rule.
DOL Overtime Rule
As discussed in our post last week, a federal district court in Texas has issued a nationwide injunction blocking implementation of the new DOL overtime rules that were set to go into effect on December 1st. Yesterday, the DOL appealed the district courts ruling to the U.S ...
As we let you know last week, legal challenges to the new federal overtime pay rules scheduled to go into effect on December 1, 2016, are pending in federal district court in Texas. On November 22, 2016, the Judge hearing the Texas cases issued a nationwide preliminary injunction enjoining the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from implementing and enforcing the new rules. As such, employers who were busily preparing to comply with those rules have a reprieve at least for now- from having to comply.
In his decision, Texas Judge Mazzant concluded that the plaintiffs established a prima facie ...
In the aftermath of President-elect Trumps victory, many employers are wondering how the president-elects priorities will impact their employment and labor law obligations. One immediate question on employers minds is whether they still must comply with the Obama administrations new federal overtime pay rules set to go into effect on December 1, 2016. It is highly unlikely that there will be any activity related to these rules by President-elect Trump prior to the December 1 deadline, although a later retraction or retrenchment of the rules is certainly possible. Employers ...
The White House has detailed a broad series of new administrative steps in response to an earlier Executive Order calling for actions that enhance competition to benefit consumers, workers, and entrepreneurs. The White House described these steps as consistent with the continuing effort of the administration to find ways to increase job growth and reduce income inequality across the country. Although the new administrative steps do not include new prohibitions and generally do not require immediate action, the steps do raise the possibility of near-term legislative and ...
The increased salary issue was expected to reach the boiling point with the release of the final DOL rule in ...
President Obamas order is the latest in a series of executive orders aimed at federal contractors as the administration tries, so far unsuccessfully, to get broader ...
The Final Rule
The draft executive order, which is marked pre-decisional and deliberative, would require a minimum of 56 hours (or seven work days) per year of paid sick leave for employees of federal contractors and subcontractors. Under the draft executive order, the paid sick leave would allow an employee to take paid time off to care for themselves or a ...
The fifteen page document outlines the familiar multi-factor economic ...
If you do business with the federal government, chances are that you're feeling weighed down by the various new requirements placed on you over the past year. We've discussed these requirements in past posts here and here. That's why you may be surprised to hear that the US Department of Labor's Veteran Employment and Training Service (VETS) published a final rule last week that actually makes something easier for federal contractors. The rule modifies and simplifies the reporting requirements under the Vietnam Era Veterans' adjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) for federal ...
Its been an interesting week on the wage and hour legal front. One of the big names in social networking, LinkedIn, made headlines this week when the U.S. Department of Labor announced a settlement of allegations that LinkedIn failed to properly record, account for, and pay certain employees for all of their hours worked. You can read the link below for lessons learned from this settlement. In other news, a federal judge ruled that critical federal government employees who worked during last year's government shutdown may be owed additional pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act ...
While union membership has declined precipitously over the last few decades, union activity is now popping up in many new sectors. From 1983 to 2013, according to the Department of Labor, union membership dropped from over 20% of the U.S. workforce to a little more than 11%. The public sector, particularly in the areas of education and protective services, still has the highest unionization rate. In the private sector, the areas of utilities, transportation, and telecommunications represent the highest rates of unionization.
In recent years and months, however, we've seen a growth ...
This week, Dropbox unveiled its new "Dropbox for Business" initiative, which gives employees a greater ability to establish digital work-life balance. The product includes two data folders - one for business data and one for personal data so that businesses and workers have the ability to segregate digital work and personal data. The Dropbox announcement came on the same day that Amazon unveiled a similar product. Airbnb also frequented the headlines this week, both for its new, streamlined app and for the scrutiny its vacation and home rental business is under from regulators. ...
Health Exchange Notice Due to Employees by October 1
What is the exchange notice?
The U.S. Department of Labor has an app for that. On Monday, the DOL announced the launch of its DOL - Timesheet App, for iPhones (click here to download the app on iTunes). The application provides employees with an easy way to keep track of their working time. It also allows employees to add notes about time entries and easily export the entries. There's even a glossary with links to the DOL website, meant to educate employees about their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Here's what the DOL says about the use of the DOL - Timesheet App:
This new technology is significant because ...