DOL Drops Proposed Call-in Pay Regulations

The New York State Department of Labor (DOL) announced late last week that it does not intend to adopt proposed regulations that would have required employers to provide additional pay to employees for “just-in-time,” “call-in,” and “on-call” scheduling. The DOL regulations were initially proposed in November 2017 and revised in December 2018 following extensive public input, including several concerns raised by LeadingAge NY. According to its official announcement, DOL now intends to let the regulatory process expire and potentially revisit this issue in the future:

"Following a series of public hearings in late 2017, the Department of Labor issued proposed regulations to address what is commonly identified as ‘just-in-time,’ ‘call-in’ or ‘on-call’ scheduling.

Based on extensive feedback in the subsequent comment period, it was clear the Department's initial intent to support workers while being fair to businesses was viewed as a one-size-fits-all approach that was not appropriate for every industry. Comments on the revised rules, issued in late 2018, indicated that significant issues remained, and the revisions did not achieve the balance of certainty and flexibility for either workers or businesses.

At this time, due to the constraints of the regulatory process, the best course of action is to let this process expire and re-evaluate in the future, likely in concert with the Legislature, which would have a broader authority and better legal standing than Department of Labor regulations alone to balance the various needs of workers, businesses and industries."

Under existing DOL regulations, employers must pay employees for at least four hours of call-in pay per day if they report to work by request or permission of the employer. LeadingAge NY is very pleased with DOL’s decision but will be closely monitoring legislative or regulatory initiatives on expanded call-in pay. Various bills on this issue have been introduced in the State Legislature, including (1) A.312/S.476, which relates to fast food worker scheduling; (2) A.315/S.3346, which relates to fast food and cleaning employees; and (3) A.2448/S.1132, the "Schedules That Work Act," involving predominantly fast food and cleaning employees.

Contact: Dan Heim, dheim@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8866