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November 4, 2008 DOL Home > SOL > FLS |
Division of Fair Labor Standards (FLS) MISSION AND FUNCTION: "Labor Standards," the basic protections established by Federal law for workers, is the unifying theme of this Division's work. The Fair Labor Standards Division provides litigation and other legal services for the Wage and Hour Division, Employment Standards Administration and the Office of Investigative Assistance in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). STATUTES: In the wage and hour area, this Division's statutes include those that require the payment of minimum wages and overtime premium pay for workers generally (the Fair Labor Standards Act), and prevailing wages and overtime pay for contractors on government contracts (the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act, the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act). The Fair Labor Standards Act also sets standards for the employment of youth; the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act sets standards for pay, housing, and transportation for migrant and seasonal farm workers; the Employee Polygraph Protection Act provides protection to employees and job applicants from illegal polygraph tests; the Family and Medical Leave Act requires employers to provide eligible employees with 12 weeks of family or medical leave on a yearly basis, with medical benefits and reinstatement rights; the Consumer Credit Protection Act protects employees' pay from excessive garnishments. The Division provides services regarding certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, especially special visa programs for nonimmigrant aliens entering the U.S. for employment in agriculture, and specialty occupations. In the OSHA area, this Division's statutes include the employee protection ("whistleblower protection") provisions of several environmental protection statutes, the Energy Reorganization Act (regulating the nuclear power industry), the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (regulating aviation safety); Section 806 of the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002, Title VIII of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (regulating corporate accountability); and Section 6 of the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002. These statutes protect employees who provide information about possible violations from retaliation by their employers. DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES: The Division's attorneys handle a variety of duties, including appellate litigation; occasional trial litigation; regulation writing and review; legislative services; and legal advice on a variety of issues affecting the interpretation and enforcement of the aforementioned statutes. The staff attorneys generally engage in all the functions of the Division (rather than receiving assignments only within a particular subject area). They normally receive individual assignments from each of the Division's counsels, the senior attorneys, and sometimes directly from the Associate and the Deputy Associate Solicitor. There is limited travel, usually averaging one to three overnight trips per year. The Division's appellate litigation, conducted before the U.S. courts of appeals and the Department's Administrative Review Board ("ARB"), encompasses the analysis of trial records, the preparation and filing of briefs, and the presentation of oral arguments. The appellate practice before the U.S. courts of appeals includes prosecuting and defending appeals from the U.S. district courts as well as defending decisions by the ARB. The Division's litigation program also involves monitoring private litigation under the Division's various statutes to determine whether the Department's participation as amicus curiae ("friend of the court") is appropriate. Examples of some recent appellate cases include:
The Division's trial litigation mainly involves the active support of the Regional Solicitors and the Department of Justice in trials before U.S. district courts and Department of Labor administrative law judges. The Division also directly litigates district court and administrative cases deemed to be particularly significant or sensitive. An example of recent litigation includes:
The Division's advice and regulatory functions encompass issues and programs under all the statutes within the Division's jurisdiction. Examples of regulatory and advisory matters include:
Among numerous opinion letters reviewed, a recent opinion letter addresses the question whether insurance claims adjusters qualify for the administrative exemption from overtime pay under section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The August 2005 opinion concludes, after analysis of relevant case law and the revised regulations at 29 C.F.R. Part 541, that the FLSA requires that claims adjusters (claims specialists I) who do not exercise discretion and independent judgment in matters of significance are covered by minimum wage and overtime provisions of the FLSA, while those who exercise the requisite discretion and independent judgment in matters of significance (claims specialists II and senior claims specialists) qualify for the administrative exemption. |
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