The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released additional guidance about how the requirements and protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) impact workers and employers as workplaces continue to reopen. The new guidance provides plain-language questions and answers addressing critical issues related to COVID-19, based on scenarios under all three laws.
Of particular interest:
- FLSA guidance describes what hours are compensable when an employee is working at home, how employers can give employees flexibility during the day; for instance, to attend to remote schooling obligations; and whether an exempt employee maintains exempt status when having to perform non non-exempt duties;
- FMLA guidance includes new discussions on treating telemedicine visits the same as physical appointments; and
- FFCRA guidance instructs that employers who rehire workers they previously furloughed during the pandemic must honor any paid-leave benefits they accrued prior to the employment separation and can’t extend a temporary layoff based on a request for additional leave.
WHD provides additional information on common issues employers and employees face when responding to the coronavirus and its effects on wages and hours worked under the FLSA and job-protected leave under the FMLA at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic. For AGC-provided resources on FFCRA and other coronavirus-related matters of significance to construction employers, visit AGC’s coronavirus website.
For more information, contact Claiborne Guy at claiborne.guy@agc.org or 703-837-5382.