Texas Employment Law Update : Texas Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Russell D. Cawyer : Kelly Hart & Hallman Law Firm : Dallas TX Labor Updates

Today the U.S. Department of Labor announced publication of a time keeping App for smart phones --the DOL -Timesheet.  Employees can download the free App through iTunes and can be used with the iPad, iPhone and iTouch.  The App is an electronic timesheet that allows employees to record their hours worked and calculate the amount of wages (including overtime) the employee may be owed by the employer.

The App allows employees to track multiple employers; input time manually or start and stop work time automatically; track meal period and other breaks and can even e-mail reports of the hours worked that are already converted into Excel format.  Finally, the App contains a glossary explaining common wage and hour terms and even a function to contact the Department of Labor.  DOL Timesheet is programmed for FLSA compliance; however, I would expect state wage and hour divisions or enterprising wage and hour class action counsel to develop similar Apps that would apply state wage and hour laws.

DOL Timesheet is another example (like the private attorney referral program --Bridge to Justice) of the Department's attempt to make it easier for employees to pursue claims against employers for wage and hour violations.  Employers must be vigilant to ensure that they are properly paying employees for all hours worked and at appropriate rates of pay for those hours.

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The U.S. Department of Labor has "clarified" the reach of the FMLA by offering an interpretation of the meaning of "son or daughter" under the FMLA.  Under the FMLA regulations, a "son or daughter" is defined as:

a biological, adopted, or foster child, a stephchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis, who is either under age 18, or age 18 or older and 'incapable of self care because of a mental or physical disability' at the time that FMLA leave is to commence.

The new Administrator's interpretation (and first issued under the FMLA) provides some examples where the the Department would find a parental relationship despite the absence of of a biological or legal relationship such as:

• where an employee provides day-to-day care for his or her unmarried partner’s child (with whom there is no legal or biological relationship) but does not financially support the child;
• where an employee who will share equally in the raising of a child with the child’s biological parent would be entitled to leave for the child’s birth ;
• where an employee who will share equally in the raising of an adopted child with a same sex partner, but who does not have a legal relationship with the child, would be entitled to leave to bond with the child following placement, or to care for the child if the child had a serious health condition, because the employee stands in loco parentis to the child.

You can access a complete copy of the Administrator's interpretation here.

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The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division issued its second Administrator's Interpretation.   The Administrator Interpretations are issued by the Division in areas where it believes it is useful to clarify the law as it relates to an entire industry, a category of employees, or to all employees.

Administrator's Interpretation No. 2010-2 discusses the Fair Labor Standards Act's exclusion from work time for certain preliminary and postliminary activities like changing clothes.  The FLSA excludes from compensable time the time spent "changing clothes or washing at the beginning or end of each workday" if that time is excluded from compensable time pursuant to "the express terms or by custom or practice" under a collective bargaining agreement.  Interpretation 2010-2 provides that exclusion from compensable time "does not extend to protective equipment worn by employees that is required by law, by the employer, or due to the nature of the job."  Consequently, the Division takes the position that time spent changing into or out of protective equipment required by law, the employer, or the nature of the job is compensable under the FLSA.

Second, the Interpretation offers the Division's opinion on whether whether noncompensable clothes changing can be a principal activity under the Portal to Portal Act rendering all subsequent activity compensable.  The Portal to Portal Act clarifies what activities are intended to be compensable work time such as work occurring before and after the employee's regular work activities.  Any activity that occurs after the employee's first principal activity and before the last principal activity is compensable.  For example, once an employee performs the first principal activity of the work day, all subsequent activity (e.g., waiting time) is compensable until the last principal activity of the workday.  It is the opinion of the Administrator that changing clothes, even if noncompensable, may be a principal activity such that it can make subsequent activities such as walking and waiting compensable.

You can download the full Administrator's Interpretation here. 

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The U.S. Department of Labor has issued revised regulations dealing with child labor in non-agricultural employment.  The new regulations take effect on July 19, 2010.  The new regulations specify the kinds of employment that minors may perform and the hours in which they can perform the work.  Any Texas employer employing individuals age 18 or younger should closely review these new child labor regulations to ensure that the child workers are engaged in appropriate activities.  You can access a full copy of the revised regulations here.

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As I wrote yesterday, the Wage & Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor has ceased issuing detailed, fact-specific opinion letters.  In the first of the Administrative Interpretations the Division will issue in lieu of opinion letters, the Division has concluded that most mortgage loan officers will not qualify for the administrative exemption to the overtime provisions of federal law.

For purposes of the Administrator's Interpretation, mortgage loan officers includes employees typically having job titles of mortgage loan representative, mortgage loan consultant and mortgage loan originator.  The interpretation outlines the typical duties performed by the employees as receiving internal leads; contacting potential customers; receiving contacts from customers generated by direct mail or other marketing activity; collecting required financial information from customers (including income, employment history, assets, investments, home ownership, debts, credit history, prior bankruptcies, judgments and liens); assessing loan products available for customers and discussing those products with customers; and completing and forwarding completed documents to underwriters or loan processors for closing.

Based on a lengthy review of the typical duties of a mortgage loan officer and the case law analyzing such positions, the Administrator concluded that the typical mortgage loan officer has the primary duty of making sales for their employers and therefore do not qualify for the administrative exemption.  You can access and review the full interpretation here.

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The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage & Hour Division announced it will no longer issue fact-specific definitive opinion letters in response to questions submitted by individuals and organizations.  According to the Division, its opinion letters provide only limited guidance to broad categories of employers and employees where slight factual differences in the facts assumed in the letter could result in a different outcome. 

In the future, the Division intends to issue Administrative Interpretations to "set forth a general interpretation of the law and regulations, applicable across-the-board to all those affected by the provision in issue"  and to "clarify[] the law as it relates to an entire industry, a category of employees, or to all employees."

The Division will continue to respond to requests for opinion letters with references to statutes, regulations, interpretations and cases that relevant to the request but without analysis of the specifics facts presented. You can access the Divisions new Administrative Interpretations page here.

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