Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Law360 Employment Authority, in “DOL Wage Policy Team Brings Biz-Friendly Experience,” by Max Kutner. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
The U.S. Department of Labor's new Wage and Hour Division political appointees came from firms that have defended management in wage litigation, companies that have faced employment law claims, a U.S. Senate committee that scrutinized the Biden DOL and a state that is considered employer-friendly. …
Paul DeCamp of management-side firm Epstein Becker Green, who served as Wage and Hour Division administrator under former President George W. Bush, said the appointees appear to bring an understanding of how businesses operate and compliance challenges they face.
"They'll certainly require that businesses comply with the law," DeCamp said. "But I think that with the backgrounds of this entire team here, what we would expect to see is enforcement that takes a realistic look at how decisions get made in a business setting and, for example, will not just reflexively assume that every violation is intentional or willful."…
Glenn Viers
Glenn Viers, a new Wage and Hour Division senior policy adviser, previously handled wage and hour compliance as vice president and general counsel at Hillstone Restaurant Group for more than 30 years, the DOL said in its announcement. …
DeCamp said restaurant industry experience could come in handy at the Wage and Hour Division, given the amount of enforcement action in that sector.
For fiscal year 2024, the division said it recovered more than $35 million in back wages for food service workers, the third-highest category after healthcare and construction workers.
Such experience "will help not only to give the agency an appreciation for the employer side of running a restaurant but also may help the agency communicate better to the restaurant industry, in terms of how to achieve compliance," DeCamp said. "To put it colloquially, this is a restaurant guy who is going to be able to shape how the agency provides guidance to restaurants." …
Garrett Buttrey
Another new senior policy adviser, Garrett Buttrey, came from the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where he was chief counsel. …
While Buttrey was at the HELP Committee, the panel's Republican side prioritized issues such as enabling independent contractors to receive benefits without reclassification as employees and pushing back on the lack of Senate confirmation of Biden's acting labor secretary and the Biden-era DOL's proposal to raise the salary threshold for overtime exemptions.
DeCamp said Buttrey's experience is "an excellent background for understanding how to communicate with Congress and how to deal with oversight."
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