DOL Opinions and Rules Still in Flux

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is still working through opinion letters issued during the Trump Administration. Most recently, on February 19, 2021, the DOL withdrew a couple of opinions, including:

• FLSA2019-6 | Further clarification of a “retail or service establishment” for purposes of overtime exemption.
• FLSA2019-10 | Compensability of time spent in a truck’s sleeper berth. Note that to the extent that FLSA2019-10 withdrew prior opinion letters, those letters are reinstated.

Additionally, the DOL recently announced plans to withdraw the Independent Contractor Final Rule, issued by the department on issued on January 7, 2021, because it is not consistent with current case law. It also intends to rescind a current regulation on joint employer relationships under the Fair Labor Standards Act, published in the Federal Register and which took effect on March 16, 2020, in light of current litigation against the rules that vacated most of the regulations.

Action Items