DOL Issues Additional Pandemic Guidance Under the FLSA, FMLA, and FFCRA

Earlier today, the US Department of Labor published helpful additional guidance for employees and employers in the following links on how the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) affect the workplace as employers slowly reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The guidance, from the Department’s Wage and Hour Division (the WHD), includes frequently asked questions and answers that address important issues under all three laws.

This guidance is the most recent set of compliance assistance materials published by the WHD. These materials include the following linked documents: a Fact Sheet for Employees, a Fact Sheet for Employers, and a Questions and Answers resource about paid sick and expanded family and medical leave under the FFCRA.

The WHD has also issued the following linked materials: two guidance posters, one for federal workers and one for all other employees, that fulfill notice requirements for employers obligated to inform employees of their FFCRA rights; Questions and Answers about posting requirements; and simple Quick Benefits Tips to determine how much paid leave the FFCRA allows workers to take.

The FFCRA was designed to help the US combat and defeat the coronavirus by reimbursing, through tax credits, American businesses with fewer than 500 employees for the cost of providing employees with paid leave taken for specified reasons related to the coronavirus, up to specified limits.

The WHD provides additional information on common issues employers and employees face when responding to the coronavirus and its effects on wages and hours worked under the FLSA and the FMLA here.