Paul DeCamp Quoted in “Federal Rules, State Action Complicate In-House Labor Strategies”

Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in the Bloomberg Law Daily Labor Report, in “Federal Rules, State Action Complicate In-House Labor Strategies,” by Robert Iafolla, Chris Marr, and Isabel Gottlieb.

Following is an excerpt:

Labor and employment issues will take significant bandwidth for in-house lawyers as federal agencies race to finalize rules ahead of the presidential election and states take varied approaches with new laws affecting the workplace.

While Biden administration regulators update nationwide requirements for things like overtime and anti-discrimination protections, state and local lawmakers are stitching together a patchwork of mandates for paid leave, pay transparency, and noncompete agreements.

Failing to comply with this slew of rapidly changing requirements carries a high risk of financial and reputational damage that in-house counsel seek to avoid for their companies. ...

“There’s a tried and true game plan for preparing for this kind of regulatory change,” said Paul DeCamp, an attorney with Epstein Becker & Green PC and former WHD chief during the Bush administration.

The first step involves identifying workers who will become overtime eligible under the new rule, DeCamp said. Companies then have to decide on an approach, which could mean accepting that those workers can earn overtime or raising their compensation so they remain ineligible for premium pay, he said.

Companies will also want to think about other issues, such as whether to convert salaried workers to hourly pay when they become OT eligible and, if so, choosing their rate of pay and working hours, DeCamp added.

More work-related rules are also expected. Companies that sponsor 401(k) plans will need to mind a hotly anticipated Labor Department measure that would broaden the kinds of retirement advice that are subject to strict fiduciary standards under federal benefits laws. And firms that rely on highly skilled foreign workers should watch for an impending Department of Homeland Security regulation aiming to clamp down on abuse of the annual H-1B visa lottery….