The U.S. Dept. of Labor has issued a number of opinion letters to start the new year dealing with a variety of subjects involving positions exempt from the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, tip pool participation, whether the company has to pay for on-call hours, and more.

The DOL says that bona fide exempt store managers do not lose their exempt status by participating in a seven-week training program to become eligible for promotion to the area sales manager position. Another letter opined that Certified Occupational Therapist Assistants do not qualify as exempt professionals because “the completion of 60 semester hours does not qualify as a ‘prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction’” required for the exemption. On the other hand, certain Assistant Athletic Instructors at institutions of higher education qualify as exempt teachers.

Discretionary bonuses paid in recognition of the high stress levels involved in employee duties may be excluded from the regular rate of pay in calculating overtime payments, the DOL says.

Sushi chefs and teppanyaki chefs who have direct contact and interact with customers may participate in tip pools and be considered tipped employees under the FLSA, the DOL says.

An employer who required that on-call employees must be reachable at all times, abstain from alcohol or other substances, and report to work within one hour of notification need not consider that on-call period as hours worked if the employee was not actually called: “[I]t is our opinion that the requirements imposed by the employer in your case are not so restrictive to convert on-call periods into hours worked under the FLSA. Moreover, the call-backs are rare. Accordingly, we conclude that the on-call periods are not compensable under the FLSA,” says the opinion letter.