The DOL and IRS effort to fight misclassification of independent contractors soldiers onward here in 2023.
Read MoreEnacted in late 2022, the PUMP at Work Act expanded the right of nursing mothers to reasonable breaks and appropriate space to express breast milk in the first year of a child’s life. I recently ate at a small restaurant and wondered how it might be able to provide the space for a nursing mother. Barring truly significant hardship, my advice is to just figure it out.
Read MoreHere is a practical guide to doing research on whether federal government facilities and lands are federal enclaves such that the application of state employment laws (including state or local wage and hour laws) are barred.
Read MoreUnder the Service Contract Act (“SCA”), negotiated CBA wage rates can be lower than the prevailing wage rate, and the CBA is not automatically displaced by the higher SCA wages or benefits set forth in a prevailing wage determination.
Read MoreWe have two different Contractor Minimum Wage Executive Orders. One requires a $12.15 minimum wage. The other requires a $16.20 an hour minimum wage. But the curious thing is they both use the same FAR section clause number — FAR 52.225-55. Confused.? So am I.
Read MoreBan TikTok on all devices. Sound simple enough, but is it? Yeah, maybe not. Read on for some thoughts about what’s required to comply with the new federal contract clause that implements the ban of TikTok and ByteDance apps on federal “information technology” whatever that really means.
Read MoreNo surprise. Women want the same thing men want — better pay and more flexible working arrangements. And the Boomers want a more secure retirement.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued a rare opinion letter last week responding to an inquiry about the calculation of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave when a employee works an FMLA-reduced schedule during a week that has a holiday. Read on to find out how to compute the amount of FMLA consumed in this scenario.
Read MoreThere is a new DOL Bulletin setting forth the requirements to accommodate employees who wish to pump breast milk while working. It gives remote workers the same rights as those who have returned to or never left the workplace.
Read MoreAn entity called the Foundation for Government Accountability is lobbying to maneuver various measures to water down state regulation of child labor laws. This is morally wrong. Reasonable child labor rules and enforcement are not inconsistent with a belief in limited government or pro-business policies.
Read MoreEmployers can pay extra shift premiums to exempt workers, if they wish, without impacting the salary basis of compensation, provided that they kept the amount of the shift premium reasonable in relation to the amount of total compensation.
Read MoreDOL recently announced that US Marshals arrested a New York restaurateur for failure to respond to a subpoena as part of a Fair Labor Standards Act investigation. This is the second such arrest in the last few months. As I said in my blog about the first arrest - things simply go better when employers take DOL investigations seriously.
Read MoreSome disputes are not meant to be litigated in court or arbitrated. One example is job classification disputes under the Service Contract Act (“SCA”) or the Davis-Bacon Act (“ DBA”). Such disputes are committed to the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Labor. Only DOL is supposed to decide them and then provide for administrative appeals. Don’t let your union drag you into an arbitration of job classification disputes on service and construction US government contracts.
Read MoreNoncompete agreements are under attack by recent proposals coming from the Biden Administration as well as a bipartisan group of Senators. Such clauses are standard fare for employment agreements, particularly for senior executives. However, in this world of remote work and a patchwork of state laws, a national rule might not be so bad after all. So, fear not, the sky actually might not fall if one of these proposals comes to pass.
Read MoreJust out — a White House memorandum directing all federal contracting agencies to hire labor advisors to help coordinate with DOL and comply with the laws regarding labor and employment which pertain to federal procurements. This includes especially the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon Act, but also many other labor requirements and Executive Orders.
Read MoreThe Wall Street Journal got the minimum wage wrong. But the good news is they issued an errata shortly thereafter correcting the mistake.
Read MoreThe Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) authorizes the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate, gather data, interview employees, enter and inspect work sites and review records as well as to gather data about hours worked and compensation paid. It can be quite intrusive; however, cooperation is certainly preferable to a perp walk. Read on to learn more about how an employer found himself arrested by the U.S. Marshal.
Read MoreThe Biden Administration has issued an Executive Order and proposed regulations for project labor agreements which will likely get finalized and become effective in 2023. it is time for construction contractors to get prepared.
Read MoreMany (if not most) of the myriad laws, regulations, and executive orders that apply to federal contractors each come with their own requirements to notify employees of the existence of these laws and their rights under them. For every rule, there’s a poster. News flash: they change - All. The. Time.
Read MoreA New Hampshire Federal Court orders a North Conway restaurant to pay $148,128 in back wages and liquidated damages to 31 employees for violating the FLSA.
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