The U.S. Dept. of Labor issued 40 Fair Labor Standards Act opinion letters (36 Administrator letters and four Non-Administrator letters) on March 6, but withdrew 20 letters which were not mailed before Jan. 21, 2009, when the Obama Administration took office.

Among the letters that were mailed before the deadline are opinions on the treatment of exempt employees, particularly with furloughing such employees for part of the work week and requiring the use of vacation time to cover their salary. If an employer reduces the hours of exempt employees due to “short term business needs” and subsequently deducts from their “fixed salary” for the week may cause the loss of exempt status, the DOL opines.
In another letter meeting the deadline, exempt employees can be required to use accrued vacation time during a plant shutdown of less than a workweek without violating the salary basis test of their exempt status, the DOL says. “[S]ince employers are not required under the FLSA to provide any vacation time to employees, there is no prohibition on an employer giving vacation time and later requiring that such vacation time be taken on a specific day(s). Therefore, a private employer may direct exempt staff to take vacation or debit their leave bank account . . . , whether for a full or partial day’s absence, provided the employees receive in payment an amount equal to their guaranteed salary,” according to the DOL letter.
Some of the other letters meeting the deadline deal with whether State-mandated training time for child care workers is compensable time worked (no, says the DOL); whether the use of a nine-day compressed workweek schedule can comply with the FLSA (yes, says the DOL); and a proposed method of computing retroactive payment of overtime.