DOL Issues Opinion Letters on Compensating Travel Time During Partial Telework and Overtime Compensation

ANCOR shares this announcement by the Department of Labor (DOL) because it could be relevant to our members in their functions as employers:

“The U.S. Department of Labor today announced two new opinion letters that address compliance issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). An opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by the person or entity that requested the letter.

The opinion letters issued today are:

• FLSA2020-19: Addressing whether certain travel time occurring on a partial telework day is compensable under the FLSA.

• FLSA2020-20: Addressing whether certain overtime payments based on an expected number of hours worked may be credited towards the amount of overtime pay owed under the FLSA and whether such overtime payments are excludable from the regular rate.

The public can search for existing opinion letters by keyword, year, topic, and a variety of other filters on the Department’s website. The Department also encourages the public to submit requests for opinion letters to WHD to obtain an opinion or determine whether existing guidance already addresses their questions. The Division exercises its discretion in determining whether and how it will respond to each request.”