The United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) began to release opinion letters again that address relevant employment law uncertainties.
The two most recent letters discussed compensable work time. Specifically, pay for travel time to those with irregular work hours, as well as break time under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
The First Letter
The first letter spoke about the compensability of travel time. The DOL states traveling away from the employee’s home community is considered worktime when it cuts across the employee’s regular workday, “as the employee is simply substituting travel for other duties.”
The DOL was clear in that compensable worktime does not include time spent commuting between home and work even when the employee works at different job sites.
Compensation for this kind of travel is to be determined by normal work hours. The DOL recognizes that certain employees do not have normal work hours. Therefore, the DOL proposes that employers may determine normal work hours for the purposes of computing compensable travel time. The DOL suggests the reviewing the employee’s time records during the most recent month of regular employment and to see if this reveals typical work hours from patterns.
The Second Letter
In the second letter, the DOL discussed compensation for hourly workers with FMLA certifications. The example used in the letter was inquiring if an employer needed to compensate an employee for rest breaks which she received for a serious medical condition. This employee would receive a fifteen (15) minute break for every hour worked. The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) spent time reiterating breaks that are generally 20 minutes or less primarily benefit the employer, so they are considered compensable wages.
In this case, the WHD decided that in this presented scenario the breaks are to benefit the employee and therefore not compensable. The letter notes that paid breaks the employer had provided to other workers should be applicable and compensable to all workers– even those who use them as part of their FMLA breaks.