The U.S. Dept. of Labor has recently posted several new opinion letters responding to inquiries concerning a variety of common wage-hour issues.

One letter covers questions on missed meal breaks, premium pay offset, unrecorded work and rounding; the response emphasizes the employer’s responsibility in controlling work time and properly compensating employees for all work “suffered or permitted.”

Another letter opines that the shoes required by the company does not constitute a “uniform” under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and that the employee’s voluntary assignment of wages to the employer for the purchase of the shoes from a third party vendor is not an impermissible deduction of wages.

Other opinions concern whether on call time spent by rescue workers are compensable; that service coordinators for program participants do not meet the professional exemption; and that salespersons selling novelty items at promotional events meet the criteria of exempt outside sales.