During the last year of the Trump Administration, as part of new regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Department of Labor (DOL) modified its rules regarding the imposition of civil money penalties (CMPs) for FLSA violations. Under the prior rules, employers were subject to “willful” CMPs if they acted contrary to advice issued by DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), even if the employer did so in good faith disagreement. Under the revised rules, acting contrary to WHD advice would be considered as a factor in assessing willfulness but not be automatically determinative as it was before.
As we reported previously, the new CMP rules were put on hold by the Biden Administration pending review. Since then, DOL has proposed further revisions to the Trump rules, while proposing to retain the helpful language related to willful CMPs described above.
In response to a request for public input and on behalf of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), NT Lakis submitted comments to DOL this week supporting retention of this provision, as well as commenting briefly on provisions of the revised rules regarding tip ownership.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.