September 2023 Government Affairs Update

DOL Proposes New Overtime Regulations

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking altering the overtime pay regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The proposed rule would increase the minimum salary threshold for overtime eligibility from $35,568 per year to $55,068 per year. The proposal would also implement automatic increases to the threshold every three years. A summary of the Department of Labor’s proposed rule can be found below:

• Increases the minimum salary level for overtime eligibility from $684 per week ($35,568 per year) to $1,059 per week ($55,068 per year).
• Increases the total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees from $107,432 per year to $143,988 per year.
• Implements automatic increases to the minimum salary threshold which would be updated every 3 years and tied to the 35th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time non hourly workers in the lowest-wage Census Region.
• Applies the overtime standard salary level to Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
• No proposed changes to the standard duties test.

OSHA Proposes Worker Walkaround Rule

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on its worker walkaround representative designation process. The proposed rule would allow union representatives to accompany OSHA inspectors on walk around inspections at non-union workplaces.

The proposal focuses on allowing third party representatives to participate in OSHA inspections, if requested by an employee, on the basis that they have “relevant knowledge, skills, or experience with hazards or conditions in the workplace or similar workplaces, or language skills of third-party representative(s) authorized by employees who may be reasonably necessary to the conduct of a CSHO's physical inspection of the workplace.”

NLRB to Publish Joint Employer Final Rule

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently confirmed that it will publish its joint employer final rule in the coming days. Under the proposed rule published last year, the NLRB would consider evidence of reserved and indirect control over employees' essential terms and conditions of employment when analyzing and determining joint employer status along with other factors.

NLRB Reinstates Obama-era Ambush Elections Rule  

Last month, the NLRB published a final rule altering the procedures for representation elections. The rule reverses changes made under the Trump administration, which in turn had reversed the Obama-era ambush election rule. There are ten provisions in the final rule, all of which shorten the time between a union filing a petition for election and the holding of that