On Tuesday afternoon, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction on the Department of Labor’s new overtime rules, which were slated to go into effect in just over a week on December 1, 2016. The judge ruled that the Department of Labor (DOL) likely overstepped its rule making authority by raising the salary threshold as high as it did and by implementing the automatic increase every three years. What this means now:
1. The effective date of the rules has been delayed indefinitely.
2. Employers may choose not to implement the changes they had planned for Dec. 1 compliance.
3. The new rules have not been thrown out or invalidated — at least not yet.
Employers are left wondering whether they should move forward with the changes they have been planning.
Employers will likely have questions about what to do now. We're here to help:
Our team of HR experts are watching for updates around the clock. When new information is available, they will prepare and send out eAlerts.
For our clients with HR On-Demand, our HR Pros are ready to talk you through the injunction and next steps you should consider for your businesses going forward.
We created a 2 minute HR training “What the Overtime Injunction Means for You” that can be found under the Learning tab in the HR Support Center.
An FLSA Reclassification Delay Letter is also available that you can use to communicate the injunction with your employees. It can be accessed from the What’s New section on the Support Center home page.
The FLSA section in the Support Center is being updated to reflect the status of the rule change. It has premium placement on the Support Center home page, so you will be able to easily locate the updates.
Notifications are being added to all FLSA-related content pages to make you aware of the status of the overtime changes.
Stay tuned... our HR Pros will be updating our FLSA-related content — including laws and guides — as the future of the rule and employers' obligations becomes clear.
If you are not a Zap Payroll HR client and would like to try our HR Support Center and HR On Demand services for one month FREE, give us a call at 510-263-8333 or click here.