Is training time paid? DOL reiterates standard position

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently answered frequently asked questions about employee training. Chiefly, when is the time compensable? Information contained in the DOL’s November 3 opinion letter is particularly important for industries such as health care in which the need for continuing education credits is common.

Facts posed by letter from hospice care provider

The letter involved a nonprofit hospice care provider with a variety of clinical staff, all of whom need continuing education units (CEUs). The facility gives each employee an educational fund they can apply to their CEUs. It doesn’t exercise any control over which continuing education classes people attend. Choosing to attend any specific class is “always entirely voluntary.”

Employees can use the CEU fund itself to further their education, keep licensure current, and engage in similar processes. In the example, the DOL found that while the hospice care provider’s CEU fund would cover the training, the employees wouldn’t be paid for their attendance.

Mandatory training is different

The CEU training highlighted in the letter is different from the training a long-term care facility mandates to keep staff in compliance. The facility must treat all such training as paid time. Needing education and being required to take specific courses are two different things.

In addressing the law, the DOL noted attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs, and similar activities need not be counted as working time if the following four criteria are all met: