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 Says Tipped Worker Rule Should Not Be Iced,” by Irene Spezzamonte. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
The U.S. Department of Labor said its new tip-credit rule doesn't clash with federal law and will not harm the restaurant industry, urging a Texas federal judge to deny two restaurant groups' bid to block the rule.
In a response motion filed Thursday, the DOL told U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman that its new rule limiting how many hours of nontipped work an employee could perform while earning subminimum tipped wages is rooted in the Fair Labor Standards Act and won't hurt restaurants. Judge Pitman should therefore deny the Restaurant Law Center and the Texas Restaurant Association's emergency motion for a preliminary injunction of the rule, which went into effect on Dec. 28. …
The DOL issued the final rule in October, codifying the 80/20 principle and directing employers to pay full minimum wage to tipped workers who spend more than 30 uninterrupted minutes on side work that directly supports tip-producing activities.
Paul DeCamp of Epstein Becker Green, which is representing the groups, said Friday that the DOL tried to use "linguistic ambiguity" to defend its dual jobs position.
"The regulation is an arbitrary and illegal power grab by the department," DeCamp said. "The secretary is not Congress, and we anticipate that in the near future the courts will declare that the dual-jobs regulation is not law."
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