HR: More Paperwork for Employers?
Last week the Department of Labor (DOL) announced it's Regulatory Analysis for Spring 2010. As always, the agenda includes plans to revise a number of regulations. It also includes a proposal that would require employers to prepare and adopt written plans that would explain how their business will comply with wage, safety and equal employment laws.
The proposal is, in part, a response to the DOL's inability to handle enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The hope is that with the adoption of these compliance plans, the responsibility will be shifted away from DOL to the employers- so that the employers can find and fix problems on their own? (Not sure why DOL recently hired 250 new investigators. )
The new approach will require employers to prepare detailed records on every worker's status under the FLSA and document how that person is paid. In addition, it would require documentation of key employment decisions, such as why an employer has determined that an employee is exempt from overtime or why a worker is classified as an independent contractor. The documentation would be required to be provided to both the worker and the DOL- upon request.
The exact requirements are still being worked out and the proposal still has to go through a formal notice process. (Typically the rule making process can take up to a year.)
So even though there is some time, if businesses weren't taking wage and hour laws seriously before-- they may want to strongly consider it now. If the proposal goes forward as expected, employers can get ready for a ton of additional paperwork that will essentially add another layer of record keeping for every employee in the US.