WASHINGTON, May 2—The U.S. Department of Labor’s May 1 announcement says it will pause enforcement of the 2024 Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act final rule in current enforcement matters while the agency reviews this regulation. Instead, the department will rely on longstanding principles outlined in Fact Sheet #13 and further informed by the reinstated Opinion Letter FLSA2019-6, which addresses classification in the context of virtual marketplace platforms. ABC, its Southeast Texas chapter, the Coalition for Workforce Innovation and five other organizations are currently challenging the 2024 final rule in federal court.
“ABC is pleased that the U.S. Department of Labor will not apply the Biden administration’s 2024 final rule’s analysis in current enforcement matters,” said Kristen Swearingen, ABC vice president of government affairs. “This is welcome news for the many construction employers who depend on legitimate independent contractors to provide specialized skills, entrepreneurial opportunities and stability during fluctuations of work common to the industry.
“The Biden administration’s 2024 final independent contractor rule is confusing, vague and unworkable, and harms construction workers classified as independent contractors because they will lose crucial opportunities for work,” said Swearingen.
“Instead of promoting much-needed economic growth and protecting legitimate independent contractors, the Biden administration’s 2024 final rule results in more confusion and expensive, time-consuming, unnecessary and often frivolous litigation, as both employers and workers will not understand who qualifies as an independent contractor under the FLSA,” said Swearingen. “ABC continues to support reinstatement of the Trump administration’s 2021 final rule, which simplified and clarified the factors for determining when a worker is an independent contractor versus an employee.”
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