Opinion Letters Clarify Labor Department Views on Pay, Leave (2)

The Labor Department’s latest batch of opinion letters tackles six questions about whether employer policies on compensation and unpaid medical leave comply with the law.

The letters, released Aug. 28 by the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, provide clarity on how to compensate workers for time spent attending voluntary health-and-wellness activities, how to apply overtime exemptions for workers in movie theaters and retail, whether short-term employees can be considered volunteers, whether organ donors qualify for unpaid medical and family leave, and if an employer’s no-fault attendance policy violates the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The department’s approach to ...