The U.S. Division of Labor on Monday introduced an opinion letter program that goals to permit people or organizations to obtain official written interpretations of how labor legal guidelines apply to particular conditions.
This system will span 5 departments — the Wage and Hour Division, the Occupational Security and Well being Administration, the Worker Advantages Safety Administration, the Veterans’ Employment and Coaching Service and the Mine Security and Well being Administration — and can contain the publication of opinion letters, letters of interpretation, advisory opinions, info letters and, for MSHA, an info hub.
“Opinion letters are a robust set of instruments to assist staff, employers, unions, business teams and all different stakeholders to know how federal labor regulation applies to actual life conditions,” Keith Sonderling, deputy secretary of labor, stated in a video posted to his LinkedIn web page. “These sources carry readability to advanced authorized questions, which we consider the Division of Labor has an obligation to offer.”
The Biden administration issued quite a few opinion letters in recent times, utilizing the strategy to weigh in on whether or not the Household and Medical Go away Act covers depart for scientific trial participation, whether or not the Truthful Labor Requirements Act permits a bar proprietor who supervises staff but additionally tends bar to obtain suggestions, whether or not holidays depend towards FMLA depart and extra.
DOL launched its first opinion letter of the second Trump administration in early Could, which reinstated a 2019 opinion letter on whether or not service suppliers working for a digital market firm are workers or unbiased contractors beneath the FLSA. The 2019 letter had been withdrawn in 2021 by the Biden administration, together with some others.
The Obama administration suspended the observe of issuing opinion letters in favor of “Administrator’s Interpretations” in 2010, nevertheless it was revived through the first Trump administration. Employers have typically discovered them to be helpful in navigating office coverage and as a possible protection in court docket.
