Lexology (01/27/12) Bill Pokorny

The U.S. Department of Labor has for the past two years been considering revisions to the record-keeping regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act that would require a company that classifies an employee as exempt to prepare a written justification of the basis for the exemption. This document would have to be provided to the employee and would be subject to inspection by DOL.

DOL’s plans for new regulations are published semiannually in the Unified Regulatory Agenda. In the most recent edition of the Unified Regulatory Agenda, published on Jan. 20, DOL moved the “Right to Know” rules from the “Proposed Rules Stage” to “Long-Term Actions,” and removed any projected date for issuing proposed rules. “Long-term actions” are defined in the agenda as “items under development but for which the agency does not expect to have a regulatory action within the 12 months after publication of this edition of the Unified Agenda.” That being the case, it appears that DOL does not plan to move forward with the rules until Jan. 20, 2013, at the earliest.