Wage and Hour Division 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In this final rule, the Department of Labor (Department or DOL) revises regulations issued pursuant to the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts and the Copeland Anti-Kickback Act to better protect the personal privacy of laborers and mechanics employed on covered construction contracts.

This document provides the text of final regulations implementing the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (``FMLA''), the law that provides eligible employees who work for covered employers the right to take job-protected, unpaid leave for absences due to the birth of the employee's son or daughter and to care for the newborn child; because of the placement of a son or daughter with the employee for adoption or foster care; in order to care for a son, daughter, spouse, or parent with a serious health condition; or because of the employee's own serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of his or her job. The final regulations also address new military family leave entitlements included in amendments to the FMLA enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008, which provide additional job-protected leave rights to eligible employees of covered employers who provide care for covered servicemembers with a serious injury or illness and because of qualifying exigencies arising out of the fact that a covered military member is on active duty or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty in support of a contingency operation.

This document extends the period for filing written comments for an additional 15 days on proposed revisions to regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) and the Portal-to- Portal Act of 1947 (Portal Act) that have become out of date because of subsequent legislation or court decisions. The Department of Labor is taking this action in order to provide interested parties additional time to submit comments.

The Employment and Training Administration and the Employment Standards Administration recently issued a proposed rule to modernize the application process for and enforcement of temporary alien agricultural (H-2A) labor certifications. 73 FR 8538 (Feb. 13, 2008). The proposed rule provided a comment period through March 31, 2008. The agencies have received several requests to extend the comment period and have decided to extend the comment period through April 14, 2008.

The Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration/ Wage and Hour Division proposes to revise certain regulations implementing the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (``FMLA''), the law that provides eligible workers with important rights to job protection for absences due to the birth or adoption of a child or for a serious health condition of the worker or a qualifying family member. The proposed changes are based on the Department's experience of nearly fifteen years administering the law, two previous Department of Labor studies of the FMLA in 1996 and 2001, several U.S. Supreme Court and lower court rulings, and the public comments received in response to a Request for Information (``RFI'') published in the Federal Register in December 2006 requesting information about experiences with the FMLA and comments on the effectiveness of these regulations. The Department is also seeking public comment on issues to be addressed in final regulations regarding military family leave. Section 585(a) of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008 amends the FMLA to provide leave to eligible employees of covered employers to care for injured servicemembers and because of any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that a covered family member is on active duty or has been notified of an impending call to active duty status in support of a contingency operation (collectively referred to herein as military family leave). The provisions of this amendment providing FMLA leave to care for a covered servicemember became effective on January 28, 2008, when the law was enacted. The provisions of this amendment providing for FMLA leave due to a qualifying exigency arising out of a covered family member's active duty (or call to active duty) status are not effective until the Secretary of Labor issues regulations defining ``qualifying exigencies.'' Because of the need to issue regulations under the military family leave provisions of the amendment as soon as possible, the Department is including in this Notice a description of the relevant military family leave statutory provisions, a discussion of issues the Department has identified, and a series of questions seeking comment on subjects and issues that may be considered in the final regulations.