The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) unveiled its semi-annual regulatory agenda on December 6, 2023, which sets an April 2024 date for release of the agency’s anticipated final rule amending the regulations defining the “white collar” exemptions from the overtime and minimum wage requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
The DOL released its…
Cases challenging the independent contractor status of certain service providers under the wage-and-hour laws are likely to continue in the near future due to the difficulties in applying the law to complex factual patterns. The Department of Labor recently provided additional guidance for determining contractor status in the form of an Administrator’s Interpretation (and the…
One common “joint employer” allegation which has been regularly rejected by courts is that a regional cable provider is a joint employer of its installation subcontractors’ employees or contractor installers, due to the alleged business or operational control the cable provider exerts over the subcontractor in how installation work is performed. A Missouri…
While wage-and-hour laws, like other employment laws. are generally “broad” and intended to foster the goal of worker protection, the scope of such laws is not limitless, as demonstrated by a recent decision from an Indiana appeals court addressing an alleged multiple or joint employer scenario. Rodriguez v. S. Dunes Golf, LLC, 2014 Ind.…
In recent months, we have discussed courts adjudicating claims seeking to hold municipalities and business’ clients‘ liable as “joint employers” for alleged unpaid wages under the FLSA. A new decision rejects a similar challenge brought with respect to a trade association. IBEW, Local Union No. 8 v. King Elec. Servs., 2014 U.S. Dist.…
Individuals employed by subcontractors in construction (and other industries) from time to time seek to go “up the food chain” and assert that control was exerted by general contractors on their job sites sufficient to render those general contractors “joint employers” for purposes of the wage laws. The goal of couse is to hold such…
Finally filling the vacant seat of Wage-and-Hour Administrator, the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment of Boston University Professor David Weil to the position. Prevailing sentiment among business and labor leaders is that Administrator Weil’s administration will take a hard line on enforcement of the FLSA, consistent with the Obama administration’s publicized view that…
Affirming a 2013 district court ruling discussed in detail here, in a summary order the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that Eastern District of New York Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack did not err in finding that home attendants employed by a not-for-profit agency who provided personal care services to City…
Potential wage liability attaches not only to hours already worked (under the FLSA), but also to violations of the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act (WARN) which requires 60 days’ notice or pay in lieu of notice for covered plant closings or mass layoffs. One issue that can arise under the WARN act, as it…
FLSA plaintiffs from time to time seek to include potential “deep pocket” defendants as alleged “joint employers,” claiming that the alleged joint employer’s control over the entity which employed them was sufficient such that FLSA liability should attach. Recently, another federal court joined the growing body of decisions rejecting such claims. Diaz v. U.S. Century …
