Texas judge blocks Biden overtime rule

In Texas v. DOL, a federal district judge granted summary judgment (dismissal without a trial) for the state of Texas and various trade groups and blocked the Biden administration’s overtime rule on a nationwide basis. In his opinion, Judge Sean Jordan of the Eastern District of Texas found the updated salary basis test violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by effectively displacing the Act’s duties test. He also ruled that automatically indexing the salary basis violates the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). The judge sent the rule back to the Department of Labor (DOL) for “further consideration in light of this opinion.”

Solicitor of Labor challenges ‘fine print’ in contracts

Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda issued a special enforcement report on coercive contracts employees are forced to sign. Nanda stated that the Solicitor’s Office is committed to combating unlawful and coercive “fine print” provisions to ensure as she says in the DOL blog “that every worker receives the protections that federal law guarantees.”

The type of coercive contracts the DOL is targeting according to Nanda includes: