DOL once again set to tackle joint employer, independent contractor regulations

The White House published last week a list of several forthcoming regulatory efforts to be conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor, according to a web page previously viewed by HR Dive, but details on specific items were unavailable Monday after they appeared to be taken offline for website maintenance.

For example, DOL listed a regulatory action on the subject of employee or independent contractors classification status under the Fair Labor Standards Act as being in the proposed rule stage. But a link to view more details about the action returned a notice that the site, which belongs to the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, would “be back shortly” after maintenance at press time.

OIRA similarly appeared to confirm that DOL would address topics such as joint employer status under the FLSA, the application of the FLSA to domestic service workers, and disclosure requirements for retirement plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Each of these items touches regulatory areas previously addressed by the Biden administration and targeted for reversal by the Trump administration.

DOL had already posted a bulletin to field staff directing employees not to enforce the Biden-era independent contractor rule, for instance, and instead to apply earlier enforcement guidelines in certain matters. Both Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer as well as Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling said during their respective confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate that they would reevaluate the Biden administration’s independent contractor and joint employer rules.

Meanwhile, DOL in May told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it would no longer defend the last administration’s rule allowing retirement plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors when making investment decisions from a lawsuit filed by several Republican-led states.

In another shift, DOL in June said it would begin issuing opinion letters through five of its subagencies. The agency’s new regime published the first such letter in May on the subject of the independent contractor classification status for virtual marketplace company workers. The letter reinstated a stance DOL previously articulated in a 2019 letter that had been rescinded during the Biden administration.