In accordance with the notice of hearing, the committee and any
authorized subcommittee will take official notice of the facts stated in
the economic report to the extent they are not refuted by evidence
received at the hearing. Other pertinent evidence available to the
Department of Labor may be presented at the hearing. The committee
itself may call witnesses not otherwise scheduled to testify. Oral or
documentary evidence may be received, but the committee shall exclude
irrelevant, immaterial, and unduly repetitious evidence. Every
interested person who has met the requirements for participation as a
party shall have the right to present his or her case by oral or
documentary evidence, to submit rebuttal evidence, and to conduct such
cross-examination of witnesses called by others as may be required for a
full and true disclosure of the facts. Testimony on behalf of an
employer or group of employers as to inability to pay the minimum wage
rate specified in paragraph (1) of section 6(a) of the Act, or as to
inability to adjust to a higher minimum wage rate than prescribed by any
applicable wage order of the Secretary, shall be supported by tangible
objective data filed as part of the prehearing statement under
Sec. 511.8. Financial or other data shall include data for the most
recent year or fraction thereof for which data are available. Financial
statements filed in accordance with this provision, except those
relating to a period of less than a full fiscal year or a fiscal year
ending less than 90 days prior to the filing of the prehearing
statement, shall be certified by an independent public accountant or
shall be sworn to conform to and be consistent with the corresponding
income tax returns covering the same years. Evidence of witnesses not
present at the hearing may be submitted only by affidavits received
with, or as a part of, a prehearing statement that meets the
requirements of Sec. 511.8 and satisfactorily explains why each affiant
cannot be present. Such affidavits will be received in evidence to the
same extent that testimony from affiants would have been admitted had
they been present. The committee will give such weight to these
statements as it considers appropriate, and the fact that such affiants
have not been subject to cross-examination may be considered, along with
other relevant facts, in assessing the weight to be given such evidence.
[55 FR 53299, Dec. 28, 1990]
